Image: Cocktail delivery St Regis style. Credit St Regis Bali.
The opening of Bali tourism discourse, which has been fueled by the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, has become a breath of fresh air for the local government and the community in recent days. The central government has also prepared five hotels in the Nusa Dua area, including the Grand Hyatt and St Regis, to become quarantine locations.
But the Badung government believes two days quarantine is enough.
“There are five hotels in Nusa Dua that will be used for quarantine of foreign tourists,” Acting Head of the Badung Tourism Office, Cokorda Raka Darmawan, was quoted by NusaBali after a meeting with Commission II of the Badung DPRD, Monday (27/9).
However, according to Raka Darmawan, it is planned foreign tourists who visit Bali (when Bali opens again) must undergo quarantine for eight days in a hotel. “We are proposing that it should be a quarantine of two days. Taking into account they have the negative swab test results from their country and have another swab test on arrival in Bali. After a final and negative result, they should be able to choose any hotel they want and begin a normal holiday,” he said.
He told Tribun Bali if the tourist has already had two negative PCR tests, eight days would be way too long to wait and they will get bored.
Meanwhile, if the on arrival swab result is positive, the foreign tourist must be taken to a government referral hospital. There are three referral hospitals, Sanglah Hospital, Unud Hospital and Bali Mandara Hospital. “All quarantine costs will be borne by the tourist,” explained Cok Raka.
Raka Darmawan says Badung is actually very much ready if and when tourism in Bali is re-opened. However, we don’t expect the number of arrivals to be immediately large, but if additional quarantine hotels are needed, Badung is ready.
“We are very ready and we have been preparing for a long time. Both in terms of quarantine areas, hotels and restaurants, tourist attractions also have CHSE (Cleanliness, Health, Safety and Environmental sustainability) certificates,” added the bureaucrat from Gianyar.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Commission II of the Badung DPRD, Gusti Anom Gumanti, encouraged the tourist sites around the island to prepare a QR Code of the Care to Protect app and a CHSE certificate. “We will check immediately. It’s not enough with the QR Code PeduliLindung, we need to check the readiness and capacity. Including checking the readiness of hotels that will be used as quarantine places for foreign tourists,” said Anom Gumanti.
“Then restaurants and cafes, which have started to see more customers recently, must also really implement strict health protocols. Don’t let it turn to nothing, we need anticipation,” he said, adding that an elegant approach was needed so that people would not consider the policy (protocols) burdensome.
