Aussies will need visas
to Bali
Monday, 05 January 2004
AUSTRALIAN tourists travelling to Bali and other Indonesian destinations
next month will no longer be able to enter the vast archipelago
without a visa and will have to pay up to US$25 for a tourist
visa.
Officials from Indonesia's Immigration Department said the new
visa, which will be issued at Denpasar and other major airports
on arrival, would take effect from February 1.
Immigration Department spokesman Ade Dachlan said: "Last
time I discussed it with the Economics Minister, he said the cost
would be US$10 for a three-day stay and US$25 for a 30-day stay."
The new visa will apply for citizens from 20 countries, including
Indonesia's strongest tourist markets including Australia, the
US, Japan and most European countries.
Mr Dachlan said the fee had been reduced from a proposed US$50
because of opposition from the Finance Ministry and tourism industry
officials.
Indonesia's billion-dollar tourism industry, which has been devastated
by the SARS scare earlier this year, the Bali and Marriott bombing
attacks, and numerous incidences of communal violence, complains
that this will be a further blow.
Since the Bali nightclub bombings foreign tourist arrivals have
dropped 12 per cent causing a severe blow to areas such as Bali,
which are heavily dependent on tourism.
And smaller tourist-trail towns, such as Pangandaran on Java's
south coast, fear the new visa policy will be their death knell.
Kirsten Hietkamp, who has managed Adam's Guesthouse in Pangandaran
for almost 20 years, said: "The thing about Indonesia is
it's always something. First it's a bomb, then another and now
these new visa laws will just be another hurdle for tourists."
Ms Hietkamp feared the new laws, which restrict tourist visas
to 30 days, will deter backpackers, who often spent several days
in Pangandaran, and more than a month travelling between Bali
and Java.
"They're going to Thailand already. Maybe they will still
come here but we'll get a lot less," she said.
Just five years ago, before Indonesia's onslaught of political
and communal violence made the headlines, this pretty fishing
village attracted 40,000 foreign tourists a year.
But now just 5000 foreign tourists make the six-hour bus trek
from Yogyakarta or Bandung, the nearest major cities, to Pangandaran.
Thatched roofing hangs forlornly from three-star hotels, the
beach is littered with rubbish, hundreds of cyclo drivers lie
idle, and souvenir sellers are so pleased to sell anything that
they don't even try selling you a sarong for three times the going
Indonesian rate.
However, a spokesman for the Justice Minister, Yusril Izha Mahendra,
dismissed the argument that the new visa would drive tourists
from Indonesia to other Asia destinations, as idle speculation.
"Tourist arrivals don't just depend on whether you have
a visa on arrival, it depends on the security in each country,"
said ministerial spokesman Sukartono Supangat.
"This is just an opinion. I can't comment on people's fears,"
he said.
Translation of the
Visa Regulation - 2004
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