VOA新闻杂志--巴厘岛恢复所有国家的国际直飞航班

Bali Restarts Direct International Flights from All Countries

Direct international flights to Indonesia's popular vacation island of Bali have restarted after a break of nearly two years.

All arriving travelers who are fully¹ vaccinated² will be required to quarantine for five days in hotels or on boats offshore³.

Officials announced in October that Bali would welcome foreign travelers from 19 nations. But there had been no direct international flights to the island until last Thursday. The first plane to arrive was a Garuda Indonesia flight from Tokyo.

Singapore Airlines said last week it would resume flights to Bali from Singapore starting on February 16.

Indonesia reported 27,197 new COVID-19 infections and 38 deaths Thursday in the latest 24-hour period. The country has seen more than 4.4 million total cases since the pandemic began.

The latest rise in virus cases, driven by the fast-spreading Omicron version, has mostly been centered in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. But infections recently "increased significantly" in Java and Bali, said Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government minister leading COVID-19 efforts in those areas.

Before the pandemic, Bali's airport was accepting more than 200 international flights with at least one million passengers per day. The island was closed to international flights after COVID-19 hit the world's fourth most populous⁴ country in 2020.

Bali drew 6.2 million foreign visitors in 2019. Last year, the whole country recorded just 1.6 million foreign visitors, down 62 percent from 2020.

Tourism is the main source of income in Bali, which is home to more than 4 million people. Bali's tourist areas were mostly empty 20 years ago after deadly terror attacks that targeted foreigners. But the island has worked to overcome that image.

Local officials say the reopening of Bali to travelers from all countries is a start to help repair the island's economy.

Indonesia's Tourism and Economy Minister, Sandiaga Uno, said the reopening will also serve as a "trial" as the government prepares to host G-20 events in Bali later this year. The G-20 is a grouping of the world's largest 20 economies.

A G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors planned for mid-February was supposed to be held in Bali. But the meeting has been moved to Jakarta because of the latest rise in COVID-19 cases.

Words in This Story

quarantine – n. the period of time during which a person or animal that has a disease or that might have a disease is kept away from others to prevent the disease from spreading

significant – adj. important or noticeable

tourism – n. the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure

1 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

2 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

3 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

4 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。