After months of miscommunication and confusion, Indonesia is finally outright saying that Australian tourists will not get their visa on arrival (VOA) fees waived.
This seemed pretty obvious to us though since the special offer was supposed to start in 2015, but Australians have had to pay VOA fees when entering through Indonesian immigration this year.
But now it’s official. Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Arief Yahya reportedly confirmed yesterday that Australians won’t get special treatment in the immigration queues. “Indonesia offers visa-free travel to countries that can offer us the same things,” Yahya said, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe. “Australia requires a visa for every foreign tourist to enter the country.”
“That means they won’t ever offer Indonesian tourists visa-free travel, even though we offer it to them,” he said (a bit begrudgingly).
Australians love visiting Indonesia, with over a million visitors to the archipelago last year. But, things don’t seem so hot between the two countries at the moment, with diplomatic relations strained because of the impending Bali Nine executions and Australia’s threat to boycott Indo in retaliation.
It was back in November when Indonesia had originally said tourists from five countries (Japan, Korea, Russia, China, and Australia) would not need to pay for visas in 2015 as a means to boost tourism arrivals.
What about the other four countries mentioned for the possibly free VOAs? That’s still being negotiated, but Japan has already agreed, Yahya said. But don’t get your hopes up too high, we’re not expecting any quick action on these deals.
