An estimated 5,000 Chinese tourists are stuck on Bali after Indonesia banned direct flights to and from mainland China to prevent the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus.
As most of the visitors were traveling on short tourist visas and were caught unaware by the ban, Indonesia on Tuesday said it would grant visa extensions of one month.
Chinese Consul General in Denpasar Gou Haodong (苟皓東) met local officials in Bali and sought help to extend the stay of the stranded tourists, the consulate said in a statement on its Web site.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The plight of the tourists illustrates the quandary in which traveling Chinese find themselves after the outbreak of the coronavirus triggered flight and travel restrictions around the world.
Indonesia suspended direct flights to and from mainland China from yesterday with the last flight to Guangzhou departing yesterday morning from Bali.
It has also temporarily discontinued visas on arrival for Chinese.
Bali, the most popular Indonesian tourist destination, is already feeling the pinch of the virus outbreak with visitors avoiding its beaches and terraced rice paddy fields.
Chinese visitors, at 2.1 million, were the second-largest group of tourists to Indonesia after Malaysians last year, Statistics Indonesia said.
Chinese tourists can still transit through third countries including Malaysia and Thailand if they wish to return home, the consulate said.
However, some of them were preferring to stay on in Bali because of the outbreak in China, the Jakarta Post reported, citing Guo.
“We still don’t have an accurate data on the number of Chinese tourists, because some of them were booked online and are staying in different places,” Bali Tourism Agency head I Putu Astawa said. “However, according to the consulate, about 5,000 Chinese are in Bali and they are happy here.”
Indonesia has yet to report any confirmed infections, although several people are under observation, officials said.
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