In 2015, in a bid to boost tourism, Indonesia added Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to the list of countries for which the US$25 fee for visa-on-arrival was waived.
“The potential loss will be US$11 million,” then tourism minister Arief Yahya said, adding that the projected additional 450,000 foreign tourists would earn the state an extra US$540 million.
The trick worked. Within two months, tourism arrivals had increased 16 per cent, compared with only 3 per cent over the previous three months. A study on the impact of visa-free entry in Indonesia by Japan’s Hiroshima University the following year confirmed the result, saying “the new visa policy can significantly boost the number of tourist arrivals”.
But when Indonesia, which is currently pulling itself out of two years of Covid-19 restrictions, reintroduced visa-on-arrival from 23 countries (including Australia, Japan and South Korea) on March 7, it was also quietly announced that a fee of US$35 would apply.
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