JAKARTA, July 13 — Foreign visitors to Bali, Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination, will have to pay an entry fee of US$10 per person starting next year, the island’s tourism office said, reported German news agency (dpa).
The fee, which will take effect on Jan 1, 2024, will be used for environmental conservation and cultural preservation programmes on the island, which is known for its Hindu temples, beaches and rice terraces, according to a circular released by the Bali Tourism Office.
It said foreign tourists will pay the fee to immigration officers at the airport or seaport when they arrive in Bali and will receive a receipt and a sticker as proof of payment.
The tourists must keep the receipt and sticker until they leave Bali, it said.
Bali, which has a population of about 4.2 million people, received more than 6.2 million foreign tourists in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The number dropped to only one million in 2020 and fewer than 100,000 in the first half of 2021, according to official data.
The entry fee is expected to help maintain the quality of tourism in Bali and support its sustainable development, according to Putu Astawa, the head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office.
“This policy is expected to increase the awareness and responsibility of foreign tourists to participate in preserving the environment and culture of Bali,” he said in the circular.
Last week, Bali Governor Wayan Koster said he wanted to make the island a destination for quality tourists who respect the local culture and environment by following the example of Bhutan, a country that limits the number of foreign visitors and charges them a high fee.
This comes after a series of scandals involving foreign visitors in Bali, such as two Russian bloggers who stripped naked at sacred sites and a German woman who interrupted a temple ceremony in the nude.
