Visa policy discourages Bali tourists

Visa policy discourages Bali tourists

The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The visa-on-arrival policy has discouraged foreigners from
traveling to Bali, the country's main tourist destination, a
recent survey revealed.

From the responses of 10,000 people, the survey found that
more than 50 percent of those interviewed would not return to
Bali due to the new policy.

The survey was conducted by the Bali Hotels Association (BHA)
in cooperation with the Bali Tourism Board (BTB), in response to
the government's request for the tourist industry to provide
"real data" on the impact of the new visa policy which began to
take effect in February 2004.

The results of the survey were presented on Friday to State
Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik during a meeting of
all stakeholders of the Bali tourist industry at the office of
Bali Governor I Dewa Made Beratha.

"Bali is the first province in Indonesia to have conducted
such a survey," said BTB chairman Putu Agus Antara.

The visa policy restricts visa-free entry to tourists from 21
countries, down from the previous list of 60 countries. It
exempts those from nine countries and two regions: Brunei, Chile,
Hongkong, Macau, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines,
Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

The three-day visa, for US$10, and 30-day visa, for $25, are
issued on arrival to nationals from Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan,
New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan,
the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Citizens of countries not on either list must apply for a visa
at the Indonesian Embassy in their respective countries.

The government has said that the new policy would have little
impact on the country's tourist industry and would generate more
income for the state.

For its survey, the BHA distributed questionnaires across 55
star-rated and luxury hotels affiliated with it, to guests as
they checked in.

Of 2,119 respondents who completed the questionnaires, 99.6
percent said they required visas to enter Indonesia.

According to the survey, 20 percent of all respondents,
including 25 percent of Japanese and 31 percent of Dutch visitors
surveyed, said they were disappointment with the lack of
efficiency in visa service and processing.

Most tourists visiting Bali are Japanese or Taiwanese.

The survey also noticed that nearly all respondents found
airport services discourteous.

Around 20 to 30 percent of them knew nothing of the new visa
regulations, while more than half of the Japanese respondents
found the airport process confusing,

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website makes no mention of
the new visa policy and still mentions a visa-free short-term
visit of up to 60 days.

The survey also discovered that visa processing was time
consuming.

Most people applying for visas at embassies abroad said it
took them more than one to two full weeks to get a visa. While
the set target time for processing visas at the airport is 10
minutes, the average waiting time of those surveyed was 25
minutes. For the Taiwanese, the average waiting time at the
airport was 48 minutes.

More than half of the respondents said the procedure would
probably deter them from returning to Indonesia.

The findings were announced as Bali's tourist industry
recorded a decline in source markets, particularly from Europe
and Scandinavia, while, at the same time, Thailand enjoyed an
increase.

Thailand received 10 million visitors in 2003, as compared to
4.2 million tourists who visited Indonesia that year.

"Arrival statistics indicate the recovery of tourism in Bali,"
said BHA chairman Robert Kelsall. "But we are creating a
precarious situation, with Bali's source markets becoming more
limited as we experience declines in key source markets which
historically produced quality visitors who stayed longer and
consequently spent more."

Bali was hit by terror attacks in October 2002, which left 202
people dead, at a time when the tourist industry was struggling
to regain its footing following the economic crisis at the end of
the 1990s.

In its recommendations, the BHA pushed for quick and easy visa
processing, particularly for key markets, and the extension of
visa-on-arrival facilities to countries that have historically
supported Indonesian tourism, including the Netherlands, Belgium,
Ireland, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Greece and Austria.