Indonesian islands bank on Singapore bubble for tourism revival

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Batam and Bintan are hoping travel bubble will bring back visitors after collapse of tourism during the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, Carol Pou, a corporate trainer in Singapore, would visit the Indonesian island of Batam several times a month.

So when plans for a travel bubble between Singapore and the neighbouring islands of Batam and Bintan were announced last month, Pou was inundated with messages from friends and relatives about the news.

“They all know how excited I was going to be about it,” Pou told Al Jazeera. “The first thing I did was message the resort. ‘When can I go?’ I told them. If I could travel to Batam tonight, I would.”

After weeks of uncertainty over when the scheme would begin, Pou will get her chance starting February 18, after Singaporean authorities this week granted long-awaited approval for ferries from Batam.

Batam and Bintan, part of Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, are hugely popular among tourists from nearby Singapore. Before the arrival of COVID-19, residents of the city-state could take a 45-minute ferry ride for a weekend getaway at one of the islands’ countless beach resorts or golf courses.

When the pandemic hit, tourism collapsed.

Batam and Bintan’s tourist numbers have plunged more than 90 percent during the pandemic, according to the Riau Islands Central Statistics Bureau. In 2019, the islands ranked second after Bali as Indonesia’s most-visited destination for foreign tourists, with more than 2.5 million international visitors. Of those, 1.9 million went to Batam, with most hailing from neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

source: Al Jazeera