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End of visa-free facility for 159 countries will not hurt tourism: Sandiaga
The tourism minister claims that Indonesian tourism will not suffer from the end of the visa-free facility for 159 countries because of the government’s paradigm shift to “quality tourism”, but an industry scholar disagrees.
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Visitors stroll the sandy coast on Jan. 8, 2022 at Kuta Beach, on the resort island of Bali. (AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
T
he end of a facility that allowed visitors from dozens of countries to enter Indonesia without a visa will not hurt the tourist industry and will instead improve the quality of tourism, the tourism minister has said.
A Law and Human Rights Ministry Decree signed on June 7 has suspended the visa-free facility for 159 countries, though it remains in place for the country’s 10 ASEAN neighbors.
“The visa-free visits for those 159 countries turned out to be ineffective,” Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said on Monday.
In 2016, the government issued a regulation that waived visa requirements for the nationals of 169 countries for short stays, but the exemption was temporarily suspended during the pandemic as it sought to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The visa-free facility was due to be reinstated now that the COVID-19 emergency and certain restrictions for cross-border travel have been lifted, but the facility was reinstated only for 10 ASEAN countries instead of all 169.
Visitors from 92 countries, however, are still eligible to apply for the visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility after arriving on Indonesian soil, which is relatively hassle-free compared to predeparture visa processes.
“The visa on arrival and electronic visa are much more effective,” Sandiaga said.
