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| Jakarta Post: The visa-on-arrival
policy has discouraged foreigners from traveling to Bali, a recent survey
has revealed. From the responses of 10,000 people, the survey found that
more than 50% of those interviewed would not return to Bali again due to
the new policy. |
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50% Won't return
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| 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. The results of the
survey were presented to the State |
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| Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero
Wacik. 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. 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, |
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99.6% require visa
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| 99.6 percent said they required visas
to enter Indonesia. According to the survey, 20 percent of all |
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| respondents, including 25 percent
of Japanese and 31 percent of Dutch visitors surveyed, said they were disappointed
with the lack of efficiency in visa service and processing. Most tourists
visiting Bali are Japanese or Taiwanese. |
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Airport staff
discourteous
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| 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
The survey 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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 while, at the same time, Thailand enjoyed an increase and received
10 million visitors in 2003, as compared to 4.2 million tourists who visited
Indonesia that year. |
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Thailand gains
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| "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."
The BHA recommended a push for quick and easy visa processing 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. |
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