Steven Gu, a Chinese tourist on the Indonesian island of Bali, was supposed to fly back last month from his holiday to his home town in Jiangsu province to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
But when he learned about the coronavirus outbreak in China, Gu, who has been in Bali since mid-January, decided to extend his stay with his wife, child and his parents.
“The epidemic in China is very serious now, therefore I hope to keep my family safe by staying in Bali,” Gu said.
He is not alone. Thousands of Chinese tourists on the resort island have opted to remain amid fears over the coronavirus, which has killed more than 600.
A Bali-based law and human rights ministry official, Sutrisno, said authorities would help Chinese tourists with visas if they did not want to return yet.
“We will extend their stay for one month. Every visa on arrival can be extended once and for 30 days. But if their country is not safe to return we will help to facilitate this for humanitarian purposes,” said Sutrisno, who uses one name.
Chinese tourists are among the biggest groups of visitors to Indonesia, especially in
destinations such as Bali.
The coronavirus outbreak has already started to hurt Indonesia’s tourism industry by halting Chinese tourist arrivals, said the chairman of the China committee at the Indonesian Association of Tours and Travel, Hery Sudiarto.
“The impact on tourism is terrible especially after flights have been cancelled and visas on arrival has been discontinued, it will stop Chinese tourists from coming to Bali in the short term,” said Sudiarto.
Indonesia, which has not recorded any cases of coronavirus, has barred visitors who have been in China for 14 days and all flights to and from there have been halted since
Wednesday.
Meanwhile, charter flights offered to thousands of Chinese tourists stranded in Bali after Indonesia halted flights over coronavirus fears have been delayed because travel permits have yet to be approved, Jakarta said yesterday.
A diplomatic notice said Beijing was arranging flights yesterday back to Wuhan.
Many of the marooned tourists are from the stricken city and surrounding Hubei province, the consulate had said.
But Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry said yesterday it had not received the necessary paperwork to greenlight charter trips after the Southeast Asian nation shut down all commercial flights to and from
mainland China.
“The Chinese embassy (in Jakarta) has not yet submitted technical details of the airplanes to relevant authorities which are required to apply for a permit,” ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.
Earlier, Bali airport authorities had said at least one empty commercial plane was set to arrive from Shanghai to pick up tourists who wanted to return.
It was not clear how many holidaymakers would take up the offer or who would pay for their tickets.
Indonesia has repatriated about 240 of its own citizens from the epicentre of the outbreak – mostly university
students studying in China.
The evacuees landed on Sunday and have been quarantined for two weeks at a military hangar on Natuna island, which lies between Borneo and
Peninsular Malaysia.
Indonesia’s health ministry has released images on social media showing the evacuees doing morning exercises, playing games and singing karaoke.
But the move has set off protests by locals angry that the quarantine site was near a
residential neighbourhood.
In response, Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said Jakarta was mulling a plan to build a quarantine site elsewhere on the 17,000 island archipelago in case it was needed in future.
Li Rong, 46-year-old Chinese citizen from Shenzen, talks to an immigration officer to extend her Indonesian visa at the Immigration Office in Denpasar, Bali yesterday.
