Exploring "turtle island", taking day trips to neighbouring Lombok and hitting Bali's famed beaches, the world's biggest-spending tourists were back after the Lunar New Year kicked off and Beijing reopened to the world last month.
"I am especially happy to travel because, before the pandemic, I was someone who liked to travel a lot, going all over to see the sights, experience different cultures and people," Li Zhao-long, a 28-year-old internet company worker from Kunming in southwest Yunnan province, told AFP.
"Three years on, being able to come from China to Indonesia, I am extremely happy and overjoyed."
Chinese holidaymakers have endured years of lockdowns and travel restrictions driven by Beijing's fervent pursuit of its "zero-Covid" policy, followed by a sudden reopening and accompanying spike in infections.
Now a lucky few armed with selfie-sticks and clad in tropical shirts and straw hats are on long-awaited getaways to the "Island of Gods".
In recent years Chinese visitor numbers to Bali plunged after both countries closed their borders at the height of the pandemic.
But Indonesia's tourism minister said Jakarta was aiming for a massive rebound from those lows and estimated the country would welcome 253,000 Chinese tourists this year.
Balinese officials are even more bullish, hoping for the return of two-thirds of the 1.2 million Chinese visitors who came to the island pre-pandemic -- making them the second biggest group of tourists behind Australians.
- 'Happy occasion' -
Though only several hundred Chinese tourists have arrived so far on a once-weekly flight from Shenzhen, the Indonesian government says four more airlines have applied to fly regularly to Bali from China.
Officials are anticipating a return to normal Chinese tourist levels -- which once amounted to a fifth of all visitors -- on the island by 2025.
The government also plans to ramp up its marketing of Bali as a paradise destination, according to the tourism minister.
At a mall in the Balinese capital Denpasar, Dong Yi was one of those who didn't need to be persuaded, vowing to return to Indonesia now mainlanders could travel back and forth.
"From the moment I stepped off the plane, I could feel the passionate hospitality of the Bali islanders. I really like it here," said the 47-year-old finance worker.
"In the future, I will come here often to travel"
Li said the pandemic was a "tough period" for him and his compatriots, and after the agonising three-year wait, "just being able to leave the country is a happy occasion".
- 'Bouncing back' -
China, relatively unscathed by the virus for years after its initial outbreaks thanks to draconian measures, has faced its biggest-ever case surge in recent weeks, with about 80 percent of the population believed to have contracted Covid.
While the US, Italy, South Korea and Japan have placed restrictions on travellers from mainland China over infection fears, Indonesia has resisted imposing any targeted measures on top of mandatory Covid-19 vaccination for all visitors.
Meanwhile, it is far from business as usual on the resort island, with the rainy season in full flow and visitor numbers still recovering.
But for shopkeepers like Elphan Situmorang, the anxiety is finally lifting after years of economic malaise.
"I hope more and more Chinese tourists will come to Bali so our business will run well again," Situmorang told AFP, saying that before the pandemic 80 percent of his customers in the tourist area of Kuta had been Chinese.
"During the pandemic, because there was zero revenue... we had to lay off our staff."
Tourism operators are also optimistic that the sector will get back on its feet with the help of a return to the booming Chinese custom of the past.
"We were suffering, honestly. I lost 10 kilograms, so you can see how hard it was," Anita, a manager of a local Indonesian tour agency at Bali's international airport, told AFP.
"But I am sure we are bouncing back."
Hong Kong offers free flights after Covid isolation
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 2, 2023 -
Hong Kong is ready to welcome the world back, its leader said Thursday, as he pitched free flights and positive publicity to resurrect the once-vibrant global hub after three years of Covid-enforced isolation.
The government's rebranding campaign, "Hello, Hong Kong", bills itself as an effort to tell "good stories" about the southern Chinese city, where years of political repression, coupled with pandemic curbs, have tarnished its business-friendly reputation.
Promising "no isolation, no quarantine and no restrictions" during a speech to business and tourism heavyweights, Chief Executive John Lee announced 500,000 free air tickets for visitors to experience the city's "hustle and bustle".
The giveaway will open in March, with another 80,000 tickets up for grabs to residents in the summer.
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is probably the world's biggest welcome ever," Lee said.
Adherence to Beijing's zero-Covid doctrine of quarantine, closed borders and face masks kept Hong Kong largely virus-free until a deadly Omicron outbreak at the start of 2022.
But it also contributed to an economic recession and the exodus of more than 2.5 percent of the population.
Even as business leaders warned Hong Kong would need a full Covid exit plan before any meaningful reboot, officials insisted on gradually rolling back restrictions long after the rest of the world opted to live with the virus.
The controls closed off what was previously one of Asia's most connected cities.
Hong Kong welcomed just 600,000 visitors in 2022, less than one percent of 2018's figure.
More than 130 international companies have shuttered their Hong Kong offices over the past three years, while a recent survey of 253 Japanese companies showed securing quality workers was their top concern.
According to official figures, more than 140,000 people left Hong Kong's labour force last year, when the economy contracted by 3.5 percent.
Lee, a former security chief currently under US sanctions over his role in snuffing out democracy protests in 2019, promised to correct the poor publicity he and other government officials have blamed for the metropolis's malaise.
"I will personally carry the promotional messages of our prowess as the world's freest economy and China's international financial centre," he said.
Speaking to AFP at the campaign launch, Peter Burnett, the former chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said "the proof will be in the pudding" for the reboot.
"At least they're doing something about it. And that to me is very, very encouraging."
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