TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Australia, Brazil to enjoy free-visa policy

Australia is finally on the list of countries whose citizens will enjoy the free visa-on-arrival policy when entering Indonesia after the Indonesian government added 84 more countries in the list in its bid to boost foreign tourist arrivals to the archipelagic country

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, December 22, 2015

Share This Article

Change Size

Australia, Brazil to enjoy free-visa policy

A

ustralia is finally on the list of countries whose citizens will enjoy the free visa-on-arrival policy when entering Indonesia after the Indonesian government added 84 more countries in the list in its bid to boost foreign tourist arrivals to the archipelagic country.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli said in Jakarta on Monday that the move was taken as the policy made earlier this year to waive the need for the citizens of a previous 47 countries to obtain visas in advance of their arrival in Indonesia had led to an increase in tourist arrivals from these countries.

'€œThe foreign tourist arrivals [from these countries] have increased 19 percent instead of the usual 6 to 8 percent increase,'€ he told the press on Monday.

The countries added to the list, apart from Australia, included Brazil, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel and Georgia. The addition, effective next week, would make the number of countries enjoying the waiver of visas-in-advance to total a staggering 174.

Rizal said that the move was taken to lure more tourists to come to Indonesia, as the government aimed to attract 20 million foreign tourists over the next five years, up from the 10 million people expected this year.

He also explained that Australia, which had long been on the list of countries with the largest number of visitors to Indonesia, was finally added to the free visa list despite that country'€™s requirement for citizens of all countries to apply for visas in advance of arrival, as that would hamper reciprocity.

Rizal said that the government had requested Australian officials, on their recent visit to Indonesia, to ease requirements for Indonesian businessmen and top officials to obtain visas when entering Australia in return for the free Indonesian visas.

'€œWe also ask them to intensify the monitoring for drug trafficking in airports and ports. We don'€™t want any more people committing wrongdoing and then have to punish them with our law,'€ he said, referring to the Indonesian law that allows capital punishment of drug traffickers.

The government had previously dropped a plan to waive the visa-on-arrival fees for visitors from Australia amid turbulence in Jakarta-Canberra diplomatic ties following the high-profile execution of two Australian drug traffickers earlier this year.

The number of tourists from Australia totaled 1.13 million people in 2014, making up to 12 percent out of total 9.44 million foreign tourist arrivals last year, according to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data.

In October, the number of Australian tourists reached 102,033 people, making Australia the country sending the second highest number of visitors that month, slightly higher than the 100,294 Australians who came in the same month last year.

Rizal also said that Brazilians were waived the need to obtain advance visas because of the improving diplomatic relations that followed a downturn caused by the capital punishment of a Brazilian citizen for drug trafficking this year, which temporarily severed relations between the two countries.

With the new regulation, the government also expected tighter cooperation between the country'€™s intelligence body, the police and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to monitor travelers coming into the 90 tourist entry points.

'€œI expect more sophisticated surveillance and that everyone who enters Indonesia will be checked against the Interpol blacklist so we can detect the people in question,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies Association (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar said that the government now has to calculate the cost and time needed to promote Indonesia in those many countries.

'€œOne hundred and seventy-four countries are no joke. How much costs are needed, for how many years? We need to be committed, especially to strengthening our brand,'€ he said.

Asnawi said that the tour and travel agencies would likely have to have business to business (b2b) cooperation with travel agents in the newly added countries.

However, he downplayed the impact of Australia being added to the list, stating that Australia had been familiar to Indonesia even before the visa-on-arrival fees were waived. (fsu)
__________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com

 

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.