Security concerns cited in new visa policy
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is planning to revoke the visa-free service currently given to a handful of countries and regions outside the Association of the Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN), in addition to providing the visa-on-arrival for 16 new countries and extending the maximum stay period.
State Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik, who was unable to give an exact date for the changes, announced after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Thursday that the revocation of the visa-free service for "certain countries", from outside of ASEAN, was mainly due to "security reasons".
"There have been some security concerns ... and it is at risk of being misused by terrorists," he said.
In the past three years, bomb blasts rocked several parts of Indonesia -- the October 2002 attacks in Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, followed by the Marriott bombing in August 2003 in South Jakarta, which killed mostly Indonesians and another at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last September, where all of the victims were Indonesians.
A presidential decree issued by then President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Feb. 1, 2004, granted a visa-free facility to citizens of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region, Chile, Morocco, Peru and Vietnam.
That policy was part of the government's decision to revoke the visa-free service for 48 countries. Those that retained the visa-free status, did so as a result of reciprocity agreements.
Jero said his office and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights were discussing the review of the government's visa policy to enable more countries to benefit from the visa-on-arrival, which, over the last year cost US$25 for a 30-day visa.
"The new visa policy will include 16 more countries on the visa-on-arrival list and will extend the stay period from the current three days to one week (for a $10 visa) and from 30 days to 60 days (for a $25 visa)," he explained.
Of the 16 countries, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, China, India, Kuwait and Egypt are included, which means those citizens do not have to go to an Indonesian Embassy in their home country to apply for a visa.
Currently, tourists who are nationals from the United States, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Finland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada, South Korea, Norway, France and Taiwan are eligible for the visa-on-arrival.
To improve its service for the visa-on-arrival application, Jero said the government would soon install more booths to serve tourists following many complaints over the long lines to fill in the documentation and pay for the visas.
Visa-on-arrivals are available at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Polonia Airport in Medan, Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, Tabing Airport in Padang and Juanda International Airport in Surabaya. They are also available at Batam; Belawan, Medan; Sibolga, North Sumatra; Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta; Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya; Benoa Port in Bali or Jayapura, Papua.
The country hopes to attract six million tourists, up from 5.33 million last year with Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta as the main tourist destinations.
The government is also hoping for foreign currency proceeds from foreign visitors to reach some US$6 billion this year from an average spending of $1,000 per person per nine-day visit, up from $4.8 billion last year netted from an average expenditure of $901 per person per nine-day stay.