For any travelers looking to take advantage of the splendid scenery and culture that Indonesia has to offer, the recent tourism news might just brighten your mood.
If you’re from Australia…not so much.
The Indonesian Tourism Ministry recently made the announcement that the country would be expanding their list of countries from which tourists can visit Indonesia without having to make use of a visa. This new development will be implemented as of next month. The policy move, as explained by Tourism Minister Arif Yahya, also comes with the hope that the same policy change could be extended towards Indonesia in the future. Besides that, the move could bring up to US$1 billion dollars into the country’s coffers. To that end, the nations to be included in this expansion are mostly from Europe, but there are significant additions of the United States and China to the list. There are also a few nations from the Middle East and Africa that are part of the expansion as well. Beforehand, it was only other Southeast Asian nations that enjoyed visa-free entry. The one glaring omission from the new expansion? Australia.
As of late, diplomatic ties between Indonesia and Australia have been severely frayed. This was aggravated by the case of two convicted Australian drug dealers who have been given the death penalty, a case which has garnered hefty scrutiny worldwide to the point of having notable figures such as Richard Branson and members of Black Sabbath making an appeal for clemency. The two offenders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran are among a group of ten set to die by firing squad. At present, the government has not been swayed to change their sentence. This incident has also been the most troubling that’s tied to an increase in the level of bad behavior on the part of some Aussie tourists over the past few years. Minister Yahya has claimed that this has no bearing on the new policy, stating: ‘I can guarantee that if the Australian government wants[it], that the foreign minister and the president will want it too.’ Australians do account for 12 percent of all foreign visitors to Indonesia, according to their internal statistics. Travelers from there can still pay for a visa on arrival as usual.
