Bali Governor Wayan Koster said that more than 20,000 domestic tourists have been arriving in Bali by sea and air each day since the case numbers of COVID-19 starting falling.
“By reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in Bali, the arrival of domestic tourists that we have monitored through I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport continues to increase,” he said at the Bali DPRD Building on Monday 18th October.
He explained that during the period that COVID-19 cases in Bali were increasing, only 500-1,000 domestic tourists were arriving each day. However, as the case numbers began to fall, tourist numbers began to uplift to 2,000 to 20,000 people per day.
“Yesterday, more than 10,000 people came through I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport. The planes are now full. Garuda Indonesia, which previously only had two flights per day, I have asked for two more flights, so now there are four flights,” he explained.
These numbers don’t include arrivals by sea; these numbers are in the tens of thousands of arrivals. “Approximately, in one day more than 20,000 domestic tourists travel by air or by land to Bali,” he continued.
Wayan said that he is optimistic that the increase in domestic tourism will boost Bali’s economy in the same way the wave of local tourists in 2020 did.
“Similar to the situation at the end of 2020, in the second quarter of 2021, Bali’s economic growth was 2.8 percent,” he added. Growth had been negative in preceding quarters.