TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno in a press conference on Monday said domestic tourist visits to Bali tumbled after the mandatory PCR tests were introduced for air travel.

“We received reports that the drop in visits to Bali is because of the PCR screening,” said Sandiaga Uno on November 1.

Sandiaga said tourist visits to Bali once reached a daily average of 10 thousand tourist visits but dropped to seven thousand on average, even though this figure is better compared to the previous one of five thousand daily visits.

The minister believed the mandatory PCR travel requirement, even under the lowered price ceiling of Rp275 thousand, remained to be a significant burden on travelers.

The Indonesian government today once again introduced changes to this policy and said that air travelers would not need to undergo PCR swab tests for flights within Java and Bali. Rapid antigen tests have been introduced as another alternative to screen potential COVID-19 carriers.

Prior to this, the government mandated the use of PCR test certificates as a requirement, which was believed to have helped contain the spread of COVID-19 under the public activity restriction (PPKM) levels 3 and 4.

The regulation was then changed to PCR tests for air travelers in Java and Bali. The government even tried to implement the same requirement across all means of public transportation. This sparked a public outcry that urged the government to re-evaluate the health regulation.

Read: PCR Pass No Longer Required in Air Travel

CAESAR AKBAR | FRANCISCA CHRISTY