Tourists Relaxing
Indonesia is reluctant to forego $50 million in visa fees from Australians holidaying in Bali.Australians are unlikely to get visa free access to Bali anytime soon, with Indonesia raking in more than $50 million from Aussie visitors in the past 12 months.
Although another 30 nations were recently granted visa free access to Indonesia, taking the total to 45, Australia was not among them and anyone fancying a holiday or on business are still required to pay a $US35 entry fee.Indonesia’s $45 entry visa fee is no deterrent to thousands of Aussie travellers who flock to Bali every year.
The official reason for Australia’s omission was the lack of reciprocal privileges for Indonesian residents.
Federal Government requires Indonesian visitors to pay a $130 visa application fee and fill out a stack of paperwork, and then pay another $55 to exit.
The charges mean the Government earns about $28 million from people visiting from Indonesia, who last year numbered 153,300.
The United Kingdom and New Zealand make similar demands on Indonesian travellers, yet those countries made the visa-free list along with China, the US, Canada, Japan and Russia.
Ross Taylor from the Indonesia Institute in Perth said as with anything to do with Indonesia, the situation with the visa free list was “complicated”.
“What Indonesia was wanting to do with the visa free access, was to attract more tourists,” said Mr Taylor.
“You’d have to say Australia, with more than a million visitors a year is a pretty mature market for Indonesia.
“What would they stand to gain by axing the visa fee for Australians? Certainly the fee isn’t acting as a deterrent.”
He said “strained diplomatic relations” between the two countries, was also taking its toll.
“We not only impose triple the visa rate upon them, then there’s the massive bureaucratic questionnaire and the like,” Mr Taylor said.
“That’s annoyed Indonesia for some time.”
The irritation even extended to Australians’ preference for Bali, with only a small percentage of visitors actually travelling to other parts of Indonesia.
Of the 1.12 million Australians who visited the country in the past year, 992,000 went to Bali.
“It really irks Indonesia that Australians don’t know anything about the rest of the country, which is absolutely amazing,” said Mr Taylor.
“That’s another issue in its own right.”
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australia’s omission from the visa-free list, was “a matter for Indonesia”.
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