Bali may be ready for WA to return but are West Australians ready to return to Bali?

Two years ago, when most people struggled to spell coronavirus, a record 400,000 West Australians had visited Bali the year before. In 2021 you could probably count the number on two hands. Kelly Kaciuba was one of them. The WA expat, living in Indonesia, arrived in the tourist hotspot of Kuta last week. She found a very different island to the backyard destination beloved by West Australians as a place to hit the beach, visit a temple and even an inexpensive location — historically cheaper than a trip to Broome — to kick off school leaver celebrations. “My heart is breaking,” she said. “It’s going to take years upon years for this place to recover. We drove around last night and 99 per cent of places were shut. Poppies Lane maybe has two or three shops open. Everything is gone, even the beach hawkers.” Two months after Bali technically reopened to the world, locals — nearly 60 per cent of whom rely on tourists for work — are crying out for their return. But in the face of quarantine requirements that could double the cost of the average Balinese holiday, anxiety about the threat of COVID-19 and widespread confusion about travel restrictions, it is far less certain WA is ready to return to Bali and if it will be the same island paradise they remember if they do. Popular adage has it that a picture is worth a thousand words and post-pandemic photos of Bali are eye catching: once-heaving beaches lie empty, if not festooned with plastic waste after a worse-than-usual monsoon season; rows of resort sun-lounges lie untouched and previously packed bars are boarded up. But just as powerful as any photos is this statistic: Between January and October Bali had just 45 international visitors. In 2019 there were 6.2 million. “That is the lowest number of foreign tourist visits we’ve ever recorded,” Bali Province section head of tourism Nyoman Gede Gunadika told CNN. And as of early December, six weeks after Bali heralded its reopening after shutting out international flights for most of the year, just 153 people had applied for tourist visas, according to Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration. The effect on Bali tourism has been devastating, with areas heavily reliant on tourism, like Ubud, Kuta and Seminyak, particularly devastated, while places like Canguu have been less hard hit. The Sunday Times talked to several Australian expats either living in Bali or who have visited recently. Most said the effect of the pandemic had been severe and thought the island would take years to recover, though some saw green shoots. Dakota Hotham, 24, who moved to Bali to teach politics three months before COVID-19 struck, said the island had “struggled dramatically” and there had been “no noticeable tourist increase” in recent weeks. “Bali is still a beautiful place and their cultural traditions are prioritised here, so often it appears as if all is OK, but behind the peaceful facade, many locals are so desperate they have resorted to finding food to eat and plastic to sell in the rubbish tips,” she said. WA expat David Armitage, who lives in Legian, said many shops and restaurants in the tourist area were permanently closed. “I have lived in Bali for seven years now but have been a Bali regular for over 30 years and I have never seen anything like this before: bombings, earthquakes, volcanoes just do not compare,” he said. Anxiety about Omicron is clearly one factor. Bali has one of the highest vaccination rates in Indonesia and, as of Friday, there were 60 active cases of COVID-19 and the seven-day average for new positive cases was four. But the global experience of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which only appeared in Bali in late December, is that it can very quickly get out of control. Arguably equally significant are Bali’s strict COVID-19 rules, which require all visitors to be fully vaccinated and undertake a mandatory 10-day quarantine, in addition to taking PCR tests. That is in contrast to other nearby holiday destinations like Thailand, which do not require vaccinated tourists to quarantine. Tourists also need to download Indonesia’s contact tracing app Peduli Lindungi and shell out up to $400 for a visa. Then there is the widespread confusion around exactly how open Bali is, given Bali has a list of just 19 countries from which it will officially accept direct flights of tourists. Australia does not appear on that list, meaning anyone from WA would currently need to enter Indonesia via Jakarta and quarantine there for 10 days, before travelling on to Bali. Given the importance of Australia to Bali — pre-pandemic Australians accounted for one-quarter of all tourists in Bali — the expectation is that will change. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman told The Sunday Times officials “are in contact with Indonesian authorities about the resumption of two-way travel at an appropriate time”. The airlines appear to be banking on it. Jetstar is currently offering flights from Sydney to Bali from early February and Virgin Australia listing flights from Perth to Bali from late March. Perth-based Indonesia Institute president Ross Taylor said Omicron “certainly complicated” the situation in Bali but the Indonesian Government’s “very cautious approach” has also acted as a major disincentive for visitors. “Currently for those people wanting to return to Bali they are required to firstly apply for a visa, take all the appropriate tests, and then enter Indonesia via Jakarta and undertake a 10-day quarantine period at their own cost before flying on to Bali,” he said. He said the combination of quarantine, visa and testing requirements would effectively double the cost of a holiday in Bali. With visa-free travel axed during the pandemic, Australians would also have to pay about $70 for a tourist visa or up to $400 if they go through an agent. “This is a shame in a way,” he said. “Bali is actually in pretty good shape in terms of managing COVID with only a few new cases occurring each day, with low hospital admissions and a two-dose vaccination rate approaching 90 per cent of people over 12 years-of-age.” Bali wants West Australians to return in 2022. But are West Australians, most of whom have spent the past 18-plus months sitting on the sidelines of the pandemic, ready to return to Bali? Mr Taylor has his doubts. “We have become so COVID-averse and frightened here in WA particularly, many West Australians will be very reluctant to head back too soon,” he said. “It will be very much a wait-and-see approach I feel, despite the Balinese desperately wanting us back.” Ms Kaciuba said some visitors may be in for a rude awakening. Despite quarantine regulations, contact tracing and mask wearing she said, on arrival in Bali, she had been shocked by the lack of social distancing while taking transport from the airport. “People from WA are in for a real shock — a real shock,” she said. “We are so paranoid, for better or worse, about it that when you are in a crowded area you wonder how everyone here isn’t sick. The mask wearing is everywhere ... but the social distancing is null and void. I have finally come to the realisation that if I’m going to be here, I might get sick. “Wear your mask, wash your hands but if you are worried about social distancing or deep cleaning then Bali is not ready for you. The people certainly are, as they struggle through this, that’s for sure.” That lackadaisical approach has not been everyone’s experience. John Woodacre, an expat living in Sanur, said handwashing, social distancing and mask wearing was the norm. “Venues opened and closed according to lockdown conditions but when open the staff are very attentive to protocols and many venues now require you to show your vax certificate,” he said. “A tracking app is in place. So in short, people in Bali have spent perhaps more time at home but services have remained fairly much the same as pre-COVID.” Bali officials appear aware of the need to reassure visitors that the island, renowned for its service culture, is taking COVID-19 seriously. Dewa Bayu, head of tourism for the part of Bali that includes Kuta and Seminyak told news website Capital.com there would be a focus on high-end facilities able to meet cleanliness protocols. “The expectation is for reopening to happen in 2022 and reaching 2019 tourists levels will happen by 2024,” he said. “To do this we must have a quality first approach where we achieve trust ... by having visitors who ... stay at facilities with the highest levels of COVID health protocols. Then we can achieve a return to previous tourist numbers.” These kind of comments may reassure would-be travellers whose primary concern is COVID-19. But, while high-end resorts represent one appealing aspect of Bali, its reputation as a destination for an easy and inexpensive holiday will suffer if only the top end of the town is seen to be reopening. For all Bali’s slow and false starts at reopening and bleak predictions about how long it could take to recover, there are signs West Australians have not fallen out of love with Bali. Bali has cracked the top three of international destinations for West Australians planning a trip after February 5, according to Flight Centre Australia. A Flight Centre spokesman told The Sunday Times that, while domestic destinations made up about 60 per cent of bookings and London was the top international spot “we are starting to get some Bali bookings again out of Perth and it’s in the top three international destinations”. In Legian, Padma Resorts, which would usually be heaving with WA families, is starting to see a flicker of interest. Marketing manager Isabella Prasmania said they were getting “quite a number of inquiries” from WA and some 2022 bookings. Lauren Bullen, above, who usually divides her time between Bali and Australia, said while some parts of the island, like Ubud, resembled a “ghost town” others were seeing an influx of domestic tourism. “The quietest Bali has been was when it first happened and everyone fled home to their home countries,” she said. “Over the last 18 months it’s gotten busier and busier with people across the world relocating to Bali for the short-long term.” Perth expat Larraine Duncan also takes heart from seeing restaurants that closed two years ago reopening. “The mood is optimistic,” she said. “I think Bali will be back to its old self in six months. A friend of mine who was stuck in Australia for 18 months came back. Kept asking me how strict everything was here. She has been back for three months and reckons life is about the same here ... free and easygoing ... just remember your masks.”