It’s extremely tough being an Indonesian citizen that loves to travel abroad. Even if you have the money to go globetrotting, the power of an Indonesian passport won’t take you very far. In the latest Global Passport Power Ranking, Singaporeans and Germans are tied for 1st with the ability to travel to 158 countries visa-free, while Indonesians ranked 65/92 with the ability to go to only 61 countries without visas.
Actually… make that 62. Just yesterday, the Republic of Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on their website “Decision on visa exemption for the nationals of the Republic of Indonesia, holders of ordinary passports”, announcing that Indonesian citizens can now travel to Serbia visa-free for up to 30 days.
Previously, Indonesians were required to pay the regular entry visa fee of EUR61 (IDR973,000).
Right now, some of you might be asking yourself, “Yay?” It’s probably because most people think of Serbia in terms of its recent war-torn history, but the Balkan country has made many strides in recent years and its capital city of Belgrade, in particular, has been hailed by travel writers as one of Europe’s best-kept secrets.
So cheer up, travel-hungry Indonesians. The number of countries that you can travel visa-free to has increased from 56 in 2015 to 62 now (an increase spurred at least in part due to Indonesia’s own expanded visa-free policy) so, hopefully, that trend will continue and a lot more countries will make it easier for Indonesians to visit in the near future.
