Bali reopens to tourists from 19 countries - but no flights are running

Vaccinated visitors must still quarantine for five days

Bali’s temples and beaches usually tempt millions of tourists each year (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Bali officially reopened to international visitors today, allowing fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries to enter - but with no international flights operating into its airport.

In a statement on Wednesday night, Indonesian authorities confirmed the list of countries, which includes China, India, Japan, France and New Zealand, but not the UK.

Tourists from Australia - one of the biggest markets for travel to Bali - also remain barred.

Double-jabbed holidaymakers from the approved countries will still have to quarantine for five days on arrival, a measure that many countries reopening to vaccinated travellers have dropped.

Visitors also need travel insurance coverage of up to $70,000 for Covid-19 treatment.

The island’s Ngurah Rai Airport has carried out simulations to practice receiving international tourists, but so far no flights into the island have been scheduled.

"We’re ready and waiting for international flights," airport spokesman Taufan Yudhistira told France 24.

"But so far there’s nothing scheduled today."

“We are ready to accept tourists who visit Bali, but certainly it does not mean all the guests suddenly visit Bali,” agreed Ida Bagus Purwa Sidemen, the executive director of the island’s hotel and restaurant association, PHRI.

“At the earliest, by the end of the year we can evaluate whether the situation has improved.”

The island, which has now been closed to international travellers for 18 months, is recovering from a surge of Delta variant cases over the summer - in mid-July, it recorded 56,000 new Covid cases in just one day.

In a YouTube video on the President Secretariat’s official channel, Bali Governor I Wayan Koster said reviving tourism was essential for the island as the industry accounts for 54 per cent of Bali’s economy.