HAPPINESS is when you get to travel to amazing, beautiful islands, that share common interests and have varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic landslides.
Over the years until today, we all know that Penang and Bali respectively, have developed tremendously in the area of tourism, arts and culture.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has wrecked one of the main wheels for both these islands, which is the tourism industry, visitors had little or none to enjoy with travel restrictions that were imposed.
Although the restrictions are yet to be lifted, the recent downward trend of daily new Covid-19 cases is slowly giving hope that sooner or later, visitors at both ends will be able travel and enjoy holidaying on the islands.
The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Penang on Oct 26 held a virtual programme called Virtual FAM Trip, to discuss potential future collaboration between Penang and Bali and expressed hopes that the borders between Malaysia and Indonesia would reopen soon.
It was attended by representatives from Penang Global Tourism, Bali tourism government office and members from Buletin Mutiara.
Bali tourism government office head Ir. I Putu Astawa said that Indonesia, specifically Bali, is always open to collaborate with Penang on the tourism sector and other relevant areas, to further boost the popularity of these two islands.
“These two islands are extremely powerful when it comes to showcasing the best of tourism products across the world, and next, we hope to venture into new areas that can further broaden the working circle with Penang.
“We hope to tap into the information technology (IT) industry in the future. Talented, IT-savvy individuals are all over Penang and Bali, and it could potentially be a new form of venture that will bloom,” Putu Astawa said during the Virtual FAM Trip programme on Oct 26.
It was previously reported that Malaysia was ready to hold talks at the policy and technical level with Indonesia for the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, through the respective country’s monitoring apps -MySejahtera (Malaysia) and PeduliLindungi (Indonesia).
According to Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, the mutual recognition would be vital towards the reopening of the borders, hence stimulating the economy and trade activities between the two sides.
While the borders between Malaysia and Thailand remains closed for now, Putu Astawa, however, said that Malaysia is ranked one of the countries in the Southeast Asia region with the highest number of visitors to Indonesia in 2019.
Meanwhile, Consul-General of the Republic of Indonesia in Penang Bambang Suharto said it was very important for Penang and Bali to stay positive and ramp up efforts to promote existing and new tourist attraction spots for the people.
Also present during the virtual programme was Kiki Tjahjo Kusprobowo (Minister Counsellor) from the Indonesian consulate located in Pulau Tikus.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Law Suun Ting