News Forum - Indonesian officials look to Phuket sandbox amid tentative re-opening plans for Bali

[Thaiger]

Tourism officials in Indonesia are monitoring the Phuket sandbox as they consider gradually re-opening Bali to foreign tourists. According to an AFP report, a final decision on re-opening the normally hugely popular island of Bali could happen today. However, the country’s tourism minister, Sandiaga Uno, says any re-opening will have to proceed with caution. “My recommendation is that we move cautiously. There are new variants lurking. We need to take baby steps.” Indonesia was struck by a new wave of infections from June as the Delta variant gripped the country, with Bali one of the first places ordered into lockdown. […]

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32 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

Tourism officials in Indonesia are monitoring the Phuket sandbox as they consider gradually re-opening Bali to foreign tourists.

making a list of what not to do? 

[Shade_Wilder]

"Tourism officials in Indonesia are monitoring the Phuket sandbox as they consider gradually re-opening Bali to foreign tourists."

As always, governments look toward their neighbours for ideas on how to proceed with policy. And, it should be noted, in the end they tend to bluster, hold meetings, claim that they are doing things in a local manner, brag more, state again about how they are unique and then do almost exactly what their neighbour did in the first place. It is good to remember that governments are made up of humans, and the kind of humans that gravitate towards governmental power are more similar to their foreign counterparts than to their fellow countrymen and woman.

Very often, a government which implements a policy first tends to reap more benefits from it than their neighbours as they have a head-start, they get to fine tune on the fly, and they set the tone of future policy in a region.

Very often, but not always.

Is the 'Phuket Sandbox' policy workable and transferable to Bali?

"Sandiaga has previously praised the Phuket sandbox concept, but it’s understood that if this is replicated on Bali, it will involve more restrictions. While sandbox tourists on Phuket can travel around the island freely, it’s likely that on Bali, tourists would be confined to areas categorised as “safe zones”."

No, not really.

If the Minister (Sandiaga) is already saying that there will be "more restrictions", then he hasn't grasped the problems with the current 'Phuket 'Sandbox'; the problem with the 'Phuket Sandbox' is that it is too restrictive to work and needs to be loosened. Put another way, what tourist would want to travel to Bali if even their own government believed that only parts of the island were safe?

The lesson of the 'Phuket sandbox' is that if you are going to open, then open. If you don't feel ready to open, then wait. A half measure just erodes confidence while not attracting people.