Insider view of the tourism in Indonesia and Raja Ampat-August 2020

August 3rd, 2020- In this blog post, we would like to give you an insider view of the tourism and the lock down situation in Indonesia and Raja Ampat. Hopefully, it will give you useful information about what to expect and when and how to plan your next visit. Please check out our post on what’s next on MahaRaja to find out about our reopening plans and booking updates.

CURRENT SITUATION IN INDONESIA

Starting March 2020, Indonesia has been impacted by Covid-19 and closed its border to tourism on April 2d, 2020. Currently, Indonesia is the most impacted country in South-East Asia.

As of today, Indonesia (with 274 million population) has reported more than 110.000 cases with more than 5,000 reported deaths. The virus has spread to all the country's 34 provinces.

The Indonesian government has defined four zone categories related to Covid-19 risk:

1- Green Zone (Very low risk): Areas with no new cases for the past 4 weeks and with 100% cure rate.

2- Yellow Zone (Low risk): Areas with few cases and with risk of transmission

3- Orange Zone (Moderate risk): Areas with large number of cases and moderate number of new cases, with risk of transmission

4- Red Zone (High risk): Areas with large number cases and new cases, with high risk of transmission

As of today, Jakarta and Bali are still in the red zone.

As its local economy is mainly based on tourism, Bali has decided to open to domestic tourism, on July 30th and to foreign tourism, on Sept 11th.

60% of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia traveled to Bali which makes it a test case for Indonesian reopening to tourists. It will be watched by all other provinces, including Raja Ampat.

Update 16/08/2020 about Bali reopening : “Impossible at the moment”

CURRENT SITUATION IN RAJA AMPAT

On March 22nd, Raja Ampat closed to all tourism activities. As of today, Raja Ampat is a Yellow Zone, with a total of 19 cases all recovered and all in the capital city of Waisai (population of 10.000).

Excluding Waisai, Raja Ampat islands (population of 40.000) have no known cases.

Several factors seem to help containing the virus in Raja Ampat:

• Remoteness and natural distance and isolation of the islands

• Low density of population (5.7/km2, one of the lowest in the world)

• No public transport or regular transport between the islands. The only possible way by local personal boat

• Early lock down and closure of resorts and tourism

• Villages lock down

The good news is that the local government plans to gradually open Raja Ampat. The Raja Ampat government will not open the area immediately, as the transmission rate is still high in Indonesia. However, the destination plans to open to domestic tourism on Oct 2020 and to foreign tourism on Dec 2020, under the conditions that Indonesian borders are open.

Sorong is the main port of entry for Raja Ampat by air. Sorong had its first Covid-19 death on March 30th, 2020. The city went into lock down and closed its airport the same day. As of today, Sorong (population of 250.000) is an Orange Zone, with a total of 212 cases and 12 deaths. The Sorong airport reopened on June 17th, 2020, mainly for domestic travelers and businesses. The reopening of Sorong airport to foreigners depends on the Indonesia decision of reopening the borders.

Excited to know when and how MahaRaja Eco Dive Lodge will open? Follow our social media pages, as the details will follow soon:

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