Key Points
- A 150,000 rupiah ($15) tax on international tourists arriving into Bali came into effect on Wednesday.
- It is the latest in a string of measures rolled out to mitigate the negative impacts of tourism on the island.
- Nearly 4.8 million tourists visited Bali between January and November in 2023, with most coming from Australia.
Bali started imposing a 150,000 rupiah ($15) tax on arriving tourists on Wednesday, in what officials say is a bid to preserve local culture and environment.
The fee will apply to foreign tourists entering internationally or from other parts of the country and will have to be paid electronically through the Love Bali online portal, according to a press release. It will not apply to domestic Indonesian tourists.
Nearly 4.8 million tourists visited Bali between January and November last year, as the island bounces back to pre-pandemic levels of almost 6.3 million direct foreign tourist arrivals per year. Most of those are Australians, with nearly 1.37 million visiting Bali in 2023.
Now the island is trying to leverage its popularity to better protect itself against some of tourism's negative impacts.
"This levy is aimed at the protection of the culture and the environment in Bali," Bali's acting governor Sang Made Mahendra Jaya said at a launch ceremony on Monday.
The holiday hotspot has also pledged to crack down on unruly tourists, after a string of incidents that included acts of disrespect to the predominantly Hindu island's culture.
A Russian man was deported from Bali in March 2023 after stripping off on Mount Agung, a volcano that marks the highest point on the island and is widely venerated by locals, believed by Hindus to be the home of the gods. Two years earlier, video footage of a Russian couple having sex on Mount Batur, another holy site, sparked similar outrage.
Authorities last year also announced a ban on foreign tourists using motorbikes, as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour after a spate of traffic offences, and proposed a ban on non-religious activities on its 22 mountains.
Under pressure from the local immigration office, who wish to visit.
Forbidden activities include climbing sacred trees, littering, working illegally, using non-recyclable plastics, and taking pictures in "unproper" clothing around sacred places, with such offences "subject to law or deportation," according to cards issued to visitors on arrival.
The tourist tax was implemented on the same day that more than 200 million Indonesians headed to the polls to select a new president.
