Summary:

The global travel disruption had cascading effects on tourism and the supporting sectors in Bali. This week’s chart portrays Bali’s vulnerability to the worldwide border closure amid COVID-19 and underlines potential areas for diversification.

Bali’s economy contracted by 9.3% in 2020, one of the worst-hit provinces in Indonesia. The loss of tourism revenue scraped IDR 90 trillion (US$ 6.3 billion) off its accommodation and food & services industry. In 2020, domestic and international tourist arrivals dropped by 5.95 million and 5.21 million persons, respectively. The pandemic propels a rethinking of Bali’s economic policies.

“Bali cannot continue to depend on tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

~Bimo Wijayanto,
Deputy of Strategic Investments

Highlights:

• The pandemic effect brings forth the importance of economic diversification as a pathway towards future resiliency.
• Two prominent sectors which have been proven resilient include the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (AFF) industry and the Information and Communication (ICT) Industry.
• AFF remains an alternative income avenue for most Balinese, who typically left the farmland to work in the more lucrative tourism sector. When a crisis hit, many of them flocked to their hometown to resume AFF activities.
• Bali attempts to integrate ICT into its AFF sector to increase yield and productivity. One initiative includes Agriculture 4.0, which encompasses vertical farming, precision farming and smart farming.
• The province invests heavily in digital infrastructure and positions itself as a digital hub. Concurrently, Bali has also aimed to attract digital nomads via its Work from Bali campaign

Article By Doris LIEW

Graphic By Yixuan GE