Hiccups mars first day of visa-on-arrival

The first day of the new visa policy was marked by confusion on Sunday, as a number of foreigners claimed they had not been informed about the new ruling from Indonesian embassies abroad.

But in Bali, the major destination of foreign tourists, the enforcement of the new visa policy went smoothly at Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Dozens of foreigners who had planned to take a Silk Air flight from Singapore bound for Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, chose to stay in the city-state as they failed to obtain visas before boarding the plane.

Similar confusion was also visible in Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, as several foreigners were surprised by the new ruling that required them to pay for a visa upon arrival.

"Because of the visa policy, dozens of foreigners opted to cancel their visit here. There should have been better preparation," Mataram tourism promotion member Rossa Stuart told Antara.

She said the Silk Air passengers were told to apply for a visa at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore as Mataram's Selaparang International Airport was not authorized to issue the visa.

While the impact of the new visa policy on the tourist market is yet to be seen, the visa procedure at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali was clearly improving even on day one.
"For the first day it went very well," Aileen Kollasch, 70, from Darwin, Australia, said, but then added that perhaps they had been lucky because there were only 42 passengers on the flight.

Made Yudha, the airport's operation manager, said it took 30 minutes for the first 42 tourists to go through the visa payment procedure in the morning but in the afternoon, as the airport got busier, the procedure took 40 minutes for 100 tourists.

"We will learn from experience and I believe the process can be quicker," he said.
He added that even though some tourists had complained that the process was too slow, most comments had been positive and people seemed happy.

In order to facilitate the new visa procedure, Ngurah Rai airport has been equipped with 10 additional visa-on-arrival counters, four bank counters and a money changer.

Responding to some complaints, spokesman for the Directorate General of Immigration Ade Endang Dachlan insisted that the government had informed the respective countries of the new policy in March last year.

"We have informed them about the policy, it is their responsibility to notify their citizens of the new ruling," Ade told The Jakarta Post.

The official underlined that from 240 foreigners arriving at Soekarno-Hatta airport who asked for a visa-on-arrival on Sunday, only six were not aware of the new policy.