| Jakarta Post Feb. 1: The first
day of the new visa policy was marked by confusion on Sunday, as a number
of foreigners claimed they had not been informed about the new ruling from
Indonesian embassies abroad. But in Bali, the enforcement of the new visa
policy went smoothly at Ngurah Rai Airport. Dozens of foreigners who had
planned to take a Silk Air flight from Singapore bound for Mataram, Lombok,
chose to stay in the city-state as they failed to |
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| obtain visas before boarding the
plane. "Because of the visa policy, dozens of foreigners opted to cancel
their visit here.There should have been better preparation," Mataram tourism
promotion member Rossa Stuart told Antara. She said the Silk Air passengers
were told to apply for a visa at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore as
Mataram's Selaparang International Airport was not uthorized to issue the
visa. While the impact of the new visa policy |
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| on the tourist market is yet
to be seen, the visa procedure at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali was clearly
improving even on day one. "For the first day it went very well," Aileen
Kollasch, 70, from Darwin, Australia, said, but then added that perhaps
they had been luckys there were only 42 passengers on the flight. Made
Yudha, the airport's operation manager, said it took 30 mins for the first
42 tourists to go through the visa payment procedure in the morning but
in the afternoon, as the airport got busier, the procedure took 40 mins
for 100 tourists. "We will learn from experience and I believe the process
can be quicker," he said. He added that even though some tourists had complained
that the process was too slow, most comments had been positive and people
seemed happy. |
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Up to
3 hr wait
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| Four minutes was the best time reported
on the first day. Heaven help anybody arriving on a 436 seat 747-400. The
last passenger would |
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| have a wait of almost 3 hours. Imagine
should 2 or 3 aircraft arrive at once. |
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Reason
for Visa change
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| The Indonesian Government believes
many countries have an unfair immigration policy that discriminate against
Indonesians. The new policy gives free-visa only to countries that give
visa-free access to Indonesian travelers. |
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Aus.
tourists down 27%
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| DENPASAR, Bali (Antara): The
number of Australian tourists who came to Bali in 2003 dropped 27 percent
from the previous year, said Tourist head, I Gde Pitana, Australian
tourists dropped to 183,000 from 232,410 in 2002. |
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Tourist
numbers dwindle
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| Arrivals at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport
for 2003 totaled 994,616, falling below 1 Mill. for the first time in a
decade, according to Jakarta Post, this showed a fall of 291,228 arrivals
from 2002. Pre-Terrorist days arrivals in 1999 & 2000 were 1.4 Mill |
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