ASITA urges visa policy review

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