You know how Indonesia has repeatedly flip-flopped back and forth at least two times between saying it will offer free visas on arrival to Australians and then pulling that option off the table?
Well the latest scoop is that government officials are claiming that Australians may be “too valuable” to let into the country for free… so the free option might be pulled. Again.
Gerindra Party MP Wihadi Wiyanto reportedly demanded the government toss out the whole of the free-visa policy instead of adding countries to the list.
“We lose revenue and economic benefits,” Wiyanto said as quoted by Perth Now.
“We have to face the fact that the free-visa policy should not be expanded but revoked.”
He’s talking about millions and millions of dollars—last year 1.1 million Australian visitors to Bali handed over $53 million in cash in visa revenues, reports said.
However, Bali tourist operators want their country to offer the free visas to Australians to get visitor numbers up. And it’s embarrassing to keep saying this is or isn’t going to happen.
“People are a bit weary about again having to inform tourists that we have no idea when and if it is happening,” Cindy Lutgen of tourism portal Bali.com said, as quoted by Australia’s 9 Network.
Apparently it’s really up to President Joko Widodo to approve the newest list of free-visa countries, since the update’s announcement in December.
