Peter Dutton eases visa rules for Indonesian visitors

Tourism operators have blamed the difficult and costly system for the low numbers of Indonesian visitors.

Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton. ‘This change reflects … part of the government’s agenda to boost our tourism sector and reduce red tape.’ Picture: Kym Smith

Canberra has significantly eased visa limitations on Indonesian visitors to promote tourism and business linkages.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, in Jakarta this week as part of a large Australian trade and investment mission, announced the availability from next year of three-year multiple entry visas for Indonesian visitors.

Indonesians at present must pay a non-refundable $125 application fee for a one-year, single-entry visa and complete a 13-page visa application that isn’t available online.

Tourism operators have blamed the difficult and costly system for the low numbers of Indonesian visitors, contrasting it with $US35 ($49) visas-on-arrival for Australian visitors to Indonesia.

Last year, there were 15,200 Indonesian visits to Australia while Australians visits to Indonesia — overwhelmingly to Bali — exceeded one million.

Mr Dutton and Tourism and International Education Minister Richard Colbeck said that online visa registration and payments were being trialled in Indonesia and would soon become generally available to tourists and business people.

“This change reflects Australia’s close relationship with Indonesia and as part of the government’s agenda to boost our tourism sector and reduce red tape,” Mr Dutton said.

However, the government was not reconsidering its rejection this year of fee-free visas-on-arrival for Indonesian travellers, he said. Indonesia had offered free arrival visas to more than 70 countries — including Australia — on condition that the same privilege was available to Indonesians visiting those countries. Mr Dutton’s predecessor, Scott Morrison, refused to consider the proposal and Australia was cut from Indonesia’s list of fee-free visa countries.

The $125 fee will remain for the new three-year visas, but Mr Colbeck indicated that could be reconsidered next year, in a report from his ministry to Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Colbeck hopes the easier visa arrangements will encourage more visits by the families of Indonesians studying in Australia and increase the numbers of students.

About 14,000 Indonesians are studying in Australia, mostly at universities and tertiary colleges, and each generates an average 2.3 visits, making student family visits one of the largest components of Indonesian travel to Australia.

Mr Colbeck said Indonesian visits were growing at a healthy 6 per cent a year and currently generated $600 million worth of economic activity in Australia.

He said this week’s trade mission in Jakarta also had generated discussions with air carriers, notably Indonesia’s Garuda, about increasing frequency and destinations of flights between the two countries.