Australian tourists are repopulating Balinese beaches after the holiday hotspot lifted travel bans and reopened to travellers – but several of their favourite haunts are still shut after years of lockdowns battered the island’s tourist industry.
The first flight in two years left for Bali from Melbourne on Monday and Australian tourists wasted no time returning to the Island’s shorelines.
A video from locals on the island shows holidaymakers back under beach umbrellas and soaking up the island sun.
After two long years without travellers and more than 700,000 job losses, residents on the island are welcoming back tourists with open arms.
Aussies and other international tourists were allowed back to Bali by the Indonesian government on Monday
Balinese beaches were once again teeming with travellers as tourists from 23 countries are allowed to enter Indonesia
Australian tourists are reportedly more than welcome after two years that crippled Bali’s economy
Youtube duo Damien and Winnie, better known as TheMonkeys, live on the island full time, said the beaches were empty just a week ago.
‘We are definitely happy to see people coming back,’ they told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Also so many local vendors are happier now too.’
Travellers from approved countries, including the US, Australia, the UK, Italy and Germany, have now started flying back to the island.
Previously Kuta was a 24 hour party destination beloved by generations of Australians who flocked there for holidays during the pandemic. However, the famed party capital more resembles a ghost town shut down by travel bans
Many fear that Bali’s tourism industry will not recover for some time after being crushed by the pandemic
Tourists from the 23 approved countries have to take a PCR test upon arrival to Indonesia.
Fully vaccinated travellers don’t have to quarantine after the Indonesian government relaxed their isolation rules.
Tourism accounts for more than 50 per cent of the Balinese economy and the Indonesian government says 700,000 locals were out of work as a result of Covid-19.
More than 70 per cent of Balinese residents work in tourism.
Beaches appear packed in a video from local Bali youtubers TheMonkeys with beach lounges full of holidaymakers
Fully vaccinated travellers do not have to quarantine when they arrive in Indonesia after the 5 day quarantine rule was scrapped.
A Kuta beach bar (pictured) closed down and packed away in May 2021, more than 52 per cent of Balinese GDP is driven by tourism
The country expects many more international arrivals to flock in now, with some airfares from Australia available for under $150 dollars.
Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans said that the company was excited to return to Bali on Monday after two years and bookings confirmed travellers were as well.
‘Our recent Bali sale saw the biggest surge in bookings we’ve seen since 2016, and our recent surveys have consistently shown that Bali is still the top international destination people want to travel to.’ he said.
The country expects many more international arrivals now as some airfares from Australia to Bali are available for under $150 dollars.
Tourists arriving from approved countries will only need to pay $47 for their visa, rather than the old cost of $300, which can be paid at the airport.
However, its not all surf and sunshine, some holiday hotspots will continue suffering the effects of covid travel bans for some time to come, especially while the island isn’t open to travellers from all over the world quite yet.
Many businesses across the island didn’t survive the covid travel bans and other hotels and restaurants have taken the opportunity to refurbish and renovate.
Bali was in danger of not being able to cope with the number of international visitors before the coronavirus pandemic hit (pictured: an empty street in one of Bali’s most esteemed destinations)
The island relies on tourists, they had over 6.3 million visit in 2019, for the first nine months of 2021 – just 43.
Many of the well-loved destination’s townships, once close to buckling under the weight of their millions of visitors, became ghost towns during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the past decade Bali was one of the top tourist destinations in the world, not just for Australians but also for Europeans, North and South Americans.
TripAdvisor rated the island the top destination in Asia and fourth in the world following record numbers of visitors in 2019.
The country abruptly shut off themselves off from international visitors in April 2020 killing the industry that hundreds of thousands had come to rely on.
Before the travel bans more than 75,000 hotel rooms were constructed along the island’s beaches to cope with surging numbers of tourists in 2019. Many hotels are now out of business.
The Bali that travellers will see for the next few years may be strikingly different to the heaving holiday destination they’re used to.
Many local businesses in Bali rely on a steady stream of international visitors to remain financially viable (pictured: a beachfront restaurant forced to close by the pandemic)
A deserted beach in Seminyak: The nightmare of empty beaches is beginning to end, locals hope, as Bali’s airport has begun to welcome its plane-loads of tourists to the island
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