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Businesses throw weight behind visa-free policy
Tourism-related institutions and businesses have lauded the governmentâs plan to waive visa requirements for the nationals of 30 countries, saying that the plan will help increase the number of foreign tourists visiting the country and boost demand for accommodations and travel agents
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Tourism-related institutions and businesses have lauded the government's plan to waive visa requirements for the nationals of 30 countries, saying that the plan will help increase the number of foreign tourists visiting the country and boost demand for accommodations and travel agents.
Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board (BPPI) chairwoman Wiryanti Sukamdani said that with the visa-free policy, Indonesia would be able to entice foreign tourists visiting neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
'Our neighboring countries welcome around 66 million foreign tourists per year and this policy will ease us in encouraging them to also include Indonesia in their itinerary,' Yanti, who is also the vice president of Sahid Hotel Group, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Yanti said the country's hotel industry would be ready to cater to the surging number of foreign tourists following the implementation of the policy.
'What the government needs to prepare is the human resources, particularly to serve the country's marine tourist destinations as well as to further develop our MICE [meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions] industry, which is still largely untapped,' she continued.
Separately, Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) chairman Asnawi Bahar said that while the policy would have a positive impact on all tourist sectors, it should also be supported by an increase in airline seat capacity as well as infrastructure facilities at tourist destinations.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said earlier that the visa-free policy, which was initially to be granted to tourists only from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, had been extended to 30 countries. The new countries on the list include Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the US, European countries such as Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, in addition to South Africa and Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Currently, tourists from these countries are still required to pay US$35 for a 30-day visa-on-arrival.
Tourism Ministry spokesperson Vincent Jemadu said the visa-free arrangement would be implemented on a reciprocal basis, unlike neighboring countries such as Malaysia that waive visa requirements for 164 countries without a reciprocity requirement.
'Out of the 30 countries, we will select which countries have the highest possibility of accepting our terms and we will soon negotiate with them,' Vincent said. 'Next month, we will officially exempt visas for the first four countries, namely China, Japan, South Korea and Russia,' he continued.
Through the free-visa policy, the government aims to attract an additional 3 million tourists this year, according to Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo.
It targets to see between 2 million and 4 million Chinese tourists entering Indonesia this year helped by the new policy, Indroyono said Tuesday.
In addition, another 1 million foreign visitors are anticipated as visas will be waived for the additional 25 countries, he said Tuesday.
'The policy may add 3 million tourists, making an overall target of 11 million tourists,' he said after a briefing at the Trade Ministry on Indonesia's participation in the Expo Milano 2015.
In a related development, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said the government would tighten the monitoring of immigration and work permits to avoid tourist visas from being misused by foreigners to work in the country.
'Security and monitoring will be tightened, particularly because people often violate visas,' Yasonna said.
Yasonna said that only five immigration units would be allowed to issue visa exemptions, i.e. those at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java.
Separately, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno played down potential violations of the Immigration Law with the introduction of the visa-free policy.
'Well, we [the government] will later make the laws congruous,' he said, defending the plan he deemed as a tool 'aimed at building the country's tourism'.
' Ina Parlina contributed to this story.
