Dear Valued Guests,
Today we received a copy of the official guidelines from Indonesia’s Ministry of Health outlining the prevention of transmission of COVID-19 in the sector of services and trade in public areas to support the sustainable reopening of businesses. These guidelines were issued to the Governor, Bupati, City Mayor, and to the head of the business sectors of all of the regions of Indonesia on May 20th.
We are awaiting the forthcoming circular letter from the Governor Office of West Sumatra, and from the Bupati Office of the Mentawai Islands, expected in the coming days to notify of the steps forward in the reopening of businesses. Currently, there exists an official shutdown of the service industry in the Mentawai Islands valid until May 29th.
Today we have been in consultation with Air Asia airline that is planning to recommence International flights from Kuala Lumpur to Padang on July 01. Ferry operations are likely to recommence between Padang and Mentawai in June and we expect there will be increased safeguards stipulated in the upcoming circular letters detailing the safe reopening of the services and tourism industry.
Indonesia is taking steps toward reopening tourism in Bali, Central Java, and the islands of Bangka Belitung off the East Coast of Sumatra. We’re hopeful West Sumatra will be next, yet we must await the official notification with the guidelines for reopening from authorities.
We have decided to provide a one-month extension for clients to have complete flexibility over booked dates to make changes as you feel you need to. This allows you to keep original booked dates in June, July, or August, or make changes if you feel you need to. The new deadline to make any changes is June 29th, until further notice.
Macaronis Resort will be reopening at the soonest possible opportunity, as the majority of our staff remain at the resort, already two months since the shutdown occurred on March 27th. We still have a handful of guests booked each week from late June onward, and we have received enquiries from surfers currently in Indonesia and keen to visit as well, which is encouraging.
There will no doubt be some incredibly uncrowded line-ups, just imagine surfing Macaronis or Greenbush completely going off and completely to yourself..!
In the coming days we will know more as we receive further information from authorities on the steps out of lockdown and the process of reopening businesses with implementation guidelines to prevent further transmission of COVID-19.
We will continue to provide updates as we receive more information in the coming days. Thank you to everybody for your kind support.
Below is a recent news release summarizing the steps out of lockdown and the planning behind the reopening of tourism in Bali, Central Java, and the islands of Bangka Belitung off the East Coast of Sumatra.
