JAKARTA – Indonesia to allow foreign travellers to its tourist island Bali including those from China, New Zealand, and Japan, among others, from Oct. 14, senior cabinet minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday (Oct. 4).

Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport will be open to foreign tourists from that date, with visitors required to quarantine for eight days at their own expense, Luhut informed reporters.

The country’s reopening and easing of social restrictions are being conducted in stages, he said, because Indonesia “doesn’t want the unexpected to happen”.

Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had previously flagged reopening the popular resort island, saying foreign tourists could return after more than 70% of people on Bali had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The government has also signalled its willingness to reopen the island to international tourists to help revive Bali’s battered economy.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, exited its first recession in over two decades in the second quarter, though a COVID-19 resurgence and ensuing social restrictions likely weighed on the recovery momentum.