More countries get visa facility

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

In a further reversal of the previous administration's highly restrictive visa policy, the government has extended visa-on- arrival facilities to 14 more countries in an effort to help the country's tourism industry.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said at a media conference on Friday that the decision had been made after a screening process was conducted involving an assessment of commercial benefits and security aspects.

"There was a protracted debate about it. The tourism industry proposed a number of countries based on frequency of visits here by their citizens. But not all of them have been included as we also had to consider the security aspects," he said.

Following the decision, the number of countries that have been granted the facility now stands at 34.

The government has set a target of attracting more than six million foreign tourists to Indonesia this year.

The government introduced the visa-on-arrival policy last year after it revoked the visa-free facility for nationals from 48 countries. It initially extended the on-arrival facility to 12 countries, and later increased the number to 22.

But the policy had been roundly criticized by the tourism industry, which says that it only serves to discourage foreign tourists from coming here.

Elsewhere, Hamid said the government had also extended the length of stay permitted on a US$10 on-arrival visa from three days to seven.

A 30-day on-arrival visa is available to tourists at a cost of $25.

The government also announced that from now on overseas nationals could enter the country through Bintang Pura port in Tanjung Pinang. This brings to 17 the number of ports and airports across the country where on-arrival visas are available.

Among the airports are Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport; Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra; I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, Bali; Tabing Airport in Padang, West Sumatra; Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi; and Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java.

On-arrival visas are also available at the ports of Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, Tanjung Perak in Surabaya and Benoa in Bali.

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Additional countries granted visa-on-arrival facilities

Austria Belgium Egypt India Ireland Kuwait Luxembourg Maldives People's Republic of China Portugal Qatar Russia Spain Saudi Arabia