ASITA urges visa policy review

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) urged on Thursday that the government hold a review of Presidential Decree No. 18/2003 on the new visa-on-arrival policy a month after its enactment on Feb. 1.

"If the decree proves to be hurting the country's tourism, then we hope the government will be wise enough to revoke it," said ASITA president Ben Sukma.

Under the decree, visitors from 23 select countries are subject to either a US$25 pay-on-arrival 30-day visa when entering Indonesia or a $10 three-day visa.

ASITA also called on the government to conduct a road show to neighboring countries and to Indonesia's biggest markets, such as Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Australia, to help the industry recover.

"Tourism has already been crippled by security problems after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and now the bird flu. We need tourists from the four countries, as they are close to us and are not deterred from visiting our country," Ben told The Jakarta Post.

Instead, he said, the government held a tourism road show to countries such as South Africa and the United States, whose nationals could not make a quick decision to visit Indonesia. -- JP