COVID-19 has crushed Bali’s tourism industry. These Australians are giving back

It’s just on lunchtime as chef Dean Keddell looks out over his near empty restaurant in Bali’s once thriving holiday district of Seminyak.

“Normally the restaurants would be full, buzzing … with people, fireworks, there would be a lot going on, but not this year,” he says.

COVID-19 has made the difference. Official figures claim there are just over 900 active cases in Bali, but Dean sees the impact of the virus in every empty table and every silent street.

“When COVID-19 hit, the numbers of people overseas cancelling trips went up and panic set in,” he says.

“I carried on for three months but I couldn’t keep going and I had to cut staff — 95 per cent of my staff are Balinese, I see them as my extended family, now they sit and wait for…