Singapore Joins Outcry at Indonesian Tourist Visa Changes

Jakarta Globe, Fidelis E. Satriastanti, February 15, 2010

A senior immigration department official said on Sunday that it would re-evaluate the government’s decision in January to scrap the one-week tourist visa, following an outcry by foreign tour agents who market packages for Batam and Bintan islands.

On January 25, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights announced that the $10 visa on arrival for foreigners staying in Indonesia for a week or less would no longer be issued, and immigration officials would only issue a 30-day visa for $25.

But the issue has sparked such controversy in Singapore that on Sunday the Straits Times reported it was causing panic among travel agents there, and in Taiwan, who had already sold short-stay packages to Batam and Bintan islands in Riau and would have to pay the difference in price out of their own pockets.

“We’ve heard [a rumor] about a contract between Riau Governor [Ismeth Abdullah] and Singapore to pay only $10 for a visa on arrival, but this is a national policy and other areas such as Bali and Manado don’t seem to be bothered with this,” said Maroloan Barimbing, spokesman for the Justice Ministry’s Directorate General of Immigration.

“They even consider it to be a great opportunity for tourists to explore more sites in the country.”

Maroloan said the Directorate General for Immigration would now spend up to three months comparing arrival figures in Batam and Bintan for Singaporeans visiting Indonesia, expatriates working in Singapore coming to visit and foreign tourists stopping by for one or two days before continuing on to Singapore.

He said one solution for frequent visitors would be to buy a $100 multiple-entry tourist visa, which is already available.

Asad Shiraz, director of marketing for Bintan Resorts, who is based in Singapore, told the Straits Times that last year 90 percent of its 410,000 guests stayed less than a week and used the $10 visa.

Andrew Dixon, an owner of the Niko Island Resort off Bintan, told the Straits Times that many foreign visitors to Riau Islands only went there for a day to play golf. “It will increase the cost of a visit for a family of four by $60,” he said. “The weekend travel market is already price sensitive as it competes with Malaysia.

The Justice Ministry claimed scrapping the 7-day visa would encourage tourists to stay longer and curb graft among immigration officials who were issuing 7-day visas when asked for 30-day visas and pocketing the difference.

But tourism analysts decried the move, saying it would hurt visitor numbers, and even the Ministry of Culture and Tourism took the unusual step of publicly saying it would try to make immigration officials reconsider.

On Sunday, however, Surya Dharma, a Tourism Ministry spokesman, took a softer line, calling the reaction from tour operators and the Riau Islands government a “temporary shock.”

“This is a national policy, but, if we’re losing tourists from this policy, then the government will try to find a solution to work it out,” he said, “either reviewing the policy or making additional policies.”

But the Straits Times quoted an immigration official as saying that any reversion to 7-day visas would be only for up to a few months to ease the shock of their withdrawal.