Bali’s tourism industry vies to ‘rise again from the collapse’ with G20 boost

Name: Thousands join laughing yoga session in Bali to stay healthy, positive and promote world peace
Uploaded: 2022-11-14T02:06:32.000Z
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: Thousands join laughing yoga session in Bali to stay healthy, positive and promote world peace

More than 1.5 million foreign tourists have visited Bali so far this year – good, but a fraction of the 6.2 million who came each year pre-pandemic

Though business is still slow, this week’s G20 summit and other related events have raised hopes on the island for a stronger tourism turnaround

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Foreign tourists shop for souvenirs in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday. Photo: AP

Associated Pressin Nusa Dua

Published: 10:06am, 14 Nov 2022Updated: 10:12am, 14 Nov 2022

Dozens of world leaders and other dignitaries are travelling to Bali for the G20 summit, drawing a welcome spotlight on the revival of the tropical island’s vital tourism sector.

Tourism is the main source of income on this idyllic “island of the gods” that is home to more than 4 million people, who are mainly Hindu in the mostly Muslim archipelago nation. So the pandemic hit Bali harder than most places in Indonesia.

Before the pandemic, 6.2 million foreigners arrived in Bali each year. Its lively tourism scene faded after the first case of Covid-19 was found in Indonesia in March 2020, with restaurants and resorts closed and many workers returning to villages to try to get by.

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Thousands join laughing yoga session in Bali to stay healthy, positive and promote world peace

Foreign tourist arrivals dropped to only 1 million in 2020, mostly in the first few months of the year, and then to a few dozen in 2021, according to government data. More than 92,000 people employed in tourism lost their jobs and the average occupancy rate of Bali hotels fell below 20 per cent.

The island’s economy contracted 9.3 per cent in 2020 from the year before and again contracted nearly 2.5 per cent year-on-year in 2021.

“The coronavirus outbreak has hammered the local economy horribly,” said Dewa Made Indra, regional secretary of Bali province. “Bali is the region with the most severe economic contraction.”

After closing to all visitors early in the pandemic, Bali reopened to Indonesians from other parts of the country in mid-2020. That helped, but then a surge of cases in July 2021 again emptied the island’s normally bustling beaches and streets. Authorities restricted public activities, closed the airport and closed all shops, bars, sit-down restaurants, tourist attractions and many other places on the island.