Slow start as Bali re-opens to foreign tourists

The much anticipated re-opening of Indonesia's famed tourist island Bali has seen a slow start, with no international flights scheduled.

As of Thursday, fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries including China, India, and France can enter Bali. The UK is not on the list.

But visitors must first serve a five-day quarantine in a hotel.

Officials had closed the international airport in April last year to stop the coronavirus from spreading.

In July, Indonesia became the epicentre of Covid in Asia, but daily cases have since reduced significantly.

Now the tourism sector is hoping that some of the 6 million foreigners who visited the island in 2019, before the pandemic hit, will return.

The island has one of the highest vaccination rates in Indonesia, with more than 82% fully vaccinated, according to health ministry data.

But according to flight monitoring site Flightradar24, there were no international flights scheduled to land at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport on Thursday and Friday.

"Until today, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Bali Airport still hasn't received any international flight slot request, whether a flight to Bali or from Bali. But, instructions from the national COVID-19 task force said that Bali is now an entry point for international flights to Indonesia," the airport's spokesperson Taufan Yudhistira told Reuters news agency.

Officials had only released the full list of countries on Wednesday evening, and have said they expect hotel and flight bookings to pick up over time.

There were also reports that details of the re-opening including visa requirements were scant.