Bali governor says tourism on resort island unaffected by revocation of visa-free entry to Indonesia

However, he stressed on Monday that Bali is experiencing an increase in international tourist visits. 

According to Antara, Mr Koster said that a total of 16,246 tourists visited the island between Jun 1 and Jun 7. He added that the number continued to increase by four per cent each day until Jun 22.

“So, rabies, visa-free revocation and any other factors circulating (in the public) do not harm Bali’s tourism in any way,” he said, adding that nothing is preventing tourists from visiting Bali. 

Instead, the number of international tourist visits has kept increasing, Mr Koster reportedly said, which in turn has positively impacted the province’s economy. 

On Jun 7, the Indonesian government signed a regulation which suspended visa-free visits from 159 countries. 

The only countries exempted from the rule are those belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand among others. 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo reportedly said last Wednesday: “(The decision to suspend visa-free visits) must be through evaluation. We used to be totally open (to visits from a lot of countries). 

“The evaluation is about whether it is beneficial or not to the country. If it is not, it must be stopped.” 

He explained that other countries also evaluate their own visa-free policy. “All countries do that, (they hold) an evaluation and (consider) the benefits,” Mr Widodo was quoted as saying by Tempo. 

A spokesperson for the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Mr Achmad Nur Saleh, reportedly said that the regulation was also issued due to the potential transmission of diseases from countries that are not certified as disease-free by the World Health Organization (WHO).