But, a month on, the “Island of the Gods” remains a shadow of its former self, with shuttered shops and restaurants dominating its once-bustling streets, and little to no sign of overseas visitors.

Not a single flight from abroad has touched down at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport since the reopening, sparking deep frustration and concern in a tourism sector terrified of losing out to regional rivals.

Workers blame factors including a time-consuming visa process and are demanding the national government do more to help businesses bounce back.

Before Indonesia shut down to foreign visitors, David Lin, a member of the Indonesian Tourist Guide Association, worked with nearly 2,000 Chinese-speaking visitors each month. “Before the pandemic, I could earn US$1,500 per month,” he said.

Now he makes about US$200, but not from tourism. He has turned to selling frozen Balinese pork ribs via Instagram to make ends meet.

Others have left Bali altogether: Lin said the number of tour guides registered under the association’s Mandarin Chinese-speaking division has plunged to around 100 from 1,500.

The Nusa Dua resort area in southern Bali used to be a magnet for foreign tourists.

But when Nikkei Asia visited in mid-November, its main beach was empty as far as the eye could see, with nobody basking in the glorious sunshine or taking a dip in the turquoise sea. Stores and restaurants targeting foreign visitors were closed.

“We are preparing something beautiful,” read a sign on a construction site, where nobody seemed to be working.

A woman who used to give massages and sell souvenirs to tourists said there are currently no visitors at all to Nusa Dua.

“Before the pandemic, there would only be the odd day where I would not have any guests,” she said. “There would be many foreign tourists on the Nusa Dua beach, especially from Asia.”

People like her and Lin hoped their luck would change when Indonesia’s government in mid-October reopened Bali to visitors from 19 countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, as well as places in the Middle East and Europe.

The nation’s tourism ministry even came up with an elaborate plan to designate three tourist hot spots in Bali as “green zones”, where visitors could carry out the still-mandatory three days of self-quarantine in resort hotels.

Authorities also ramped up their inoculation drive in Bali in anticipation of welcoming back international guests. Thanks to that, nearly 70% of the island’s population is now fully vaccinated – one of the highest rates in the country.

However, those steps have done little to kickstart travel.

“After Bali’s international tourism opened on Oct 14, 2021, until (mid-November) there has been no direct flight with commercial aircraft directly to Bali,” said an official at Angkasa Pura I, the state-owned company which manages the airport.

Data from the national statistics agency show just 35 foreign visitors arrived at the airport in the first nine months of the year, a number that is unlikely to have changed much over the last few weeks given the lack of international flights.

That’s in marked contrast to Phuket in Thailand, which greeted over 200 vaccinated foreign tourists in a single day when it reopened on July 1.

Hardly anybody could be seen at Ngurah Rai’s international terminal on Nov 17, and the information board offered a stark reminder of the state of Bali: “No Operate” appeared next to every flight listed.

“It’s been more than a month since Bali opened up. Why are we still not getting any (international) flights coming?” said Boina Ana Tatiana, who owns a restaurant on the island.

She closed several other businesses including spas and a motorbike rental service as foreign tourism dried up.

One travel industry insider said government ministries may not be singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to reopening.

The thinking, the person said, may be that while the tourism ministry, for obvious reasons, has pushed for reopening, other ministries are more cautious and want to make sure Covid cases remain low, leading to layers of bureaucracy that put off tourists.

Marco Groten, the area vice-president for Indonesia at Hyatt Hotels, highlighted the country’s visa process as a barrier.

“The current tourist visa (scheme) is rather cumbersome … As a tourist (Indonesia) does not make it (easy enough) for tourists to come,” he said. The process is “almost impossible to do yourself” and costs at least is 3.5 million rupiah, he said.

The absence of international tourists has ravaged Bali’s economy.

Its gross domestic product shrank by 9.3% in 2020, the deepest contraction among Indonesia’s 34 provinces. In the third quarter of this year, the island’s GDP dropped by 2.97% from the same period a year ago, when national GDP grew by 3.51%.

Nowhere is the economic downturn more evident than in Kuta, another Balinese tourism hub that previously drew visitors from around the world. Store after store was shut on the main shopping drag, with the parked motorbikes that used to crowd the street long gone.

“Are you interested in renting this property?” a man asked as Nikkei Asia passed. “You know, before corona, this would have cost 500 million rupiah. Now I can give it to you for 200 million.”

On Kuta’s beach, plastic chairs where visitors used to relax remained empty. A handful of domestic tourists in the sea were outnumbered by sellers of souvenirs and drinks.

Nuryati, a woman in her 50s, was one such peddler with nothing to do. She recently returned to Kuta from her home village after the government announced Bali’s reopening.

She said nobody is buying her “I Love Bali” bracelets that normally sell for 10,000 rupiah. “The majority of local tourists buy accessories for souvenirs at outlet shops, so even though local tourists are increasing, it doesn’t help much,” she said.

Others in the sector agreed that domestic tourism appears to be creeping back, especially after Covid cases dropped drastically across the country. Indeed, there were some people enjoying Kuta’s nightclubs that evening.

But many said that gradual growth in domestic tourists cannot make up for the loss of international travellers.

According to Tjok Bagus Pemayun, acting head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, foreign tourists visiting the island would spend around US$150 a day – nearly five times more than Indonesian visitors.

“The presence of local tourists has not been able to cover the gap from foreign tourists,” he said.

And even the trickle of income from domestic tourism is likely to take a hit heading into the year-end, with the government planning to tighten social restrictions on Java island and Bali. The tougher rules are set to be introduced from Christmas Eve to Jan 2.

“This policy is to tighten the movement of people and prevent a spike in Covid-19 cases, so that there is national uniformity,” Muhadjir Effendy, coordinating minister for human development and culture, said in a news conference.

An online petition uploaded by 34 Bali tourism stakeholders underscored the sector’s distress.

“It’s been over a month since Bali was declared ‘reopened’ to 19 countries, but our hopes for what that move represented have turned out to be a mirage. Not a single foreign tourist from these 19 countries has come to Bali,” said the petition, in the style of an open letter to President Joko Widodo.

“This has been a month of wasted time, adding to our already long list of suffering, and we have been feeling pain all this time,” the petition continued.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. A Garuda Indonesia executive told Nikkei Asia that on Dec 5 the national carrier will open a route connecting Tokyo’s Haneda Airport with Jakarta that stops off in Bali.

“This is Garuda’s first direct international flight to Bali since the closure of Bali for international routes in 2020,” the executive said.

Bali’s provincial government is also lobbying the central government to help the tourism industry, with proposals including scrapping the cumbersome visa process by reviving visas on arrival, as well as reducing the mandated self-quarantine period to a day from the current three.

It wants to level the playing field with other tourism destinations in Asia that have a zero-quarantine policy for vaccinated travellers, said Pemayun of Bali’s tourism office.

The provincial government is also asking Jakarta to add Australia, the US, the UK, Russia and Germany to the list of countries allowed entry. Together they accounted for around 34% of foreign visitors to Bali in pre-pandemic 2019.

“It is difficult for local tourists to replace the foreign tourist market,” said Dani, an owner of a surf rental business on Kuta’s beach.

“The activities they carry out in Bali are different. Foreigners such as Australians like to surf in Kuta, while local tourists prefer to see the scenery on the beach.

“Foreign tourists are irreplaceable,” he said.