In News, Tourism
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Image: Tourists in Bali. Credit: balikidsguide.com

Bali Regional Representatives said today that they will support a new plan from the regional government to charge foreigners USD 10 for each visit to Bali in the future. They hoped that the government can get Rp 1 trillion from the new tax.

Bali Governor, Wayan Koster, said that the government needs to ensure the tourist’s security, safety, and comfort when they visited Bali, and they need to charge USD 10 to help implement it.

“We have to improve tourist services, which need money and contributions. We have to secure our culture, too, and all of these things will be covered by this charge,” said Koster to nusabali.com on Monday in Denpasar.

Koster said that the charge will be managed by an accountable and transparent institution to increase the income from the tourism sector. They plan to charge domestic tourists, too, but with the smaller amount of Rp 10,000 per local tourist.

Koster said that the tourists will get insurance and they will get full service when they are in Bali. “We will fix the roads and the tourism destinations on the island, so the tourists won’t be disappointed when they come to Bali. With this plan, Bali will get Rp 1 trillion if there are 7 million visitors per year,” Koster added.

He told reporters that he had explained the plan to Sri Mulyani, the Indonesian Minister of Finance, who said that it was logical to charge the tourists to maintain Bali arts and cultures.

Meanwhile, the Head of Bali Regional Representatives, Nyoman Adi Wiryatama, said that members of the regional government will support the plan and agreed with Koster that maintaining the Balinese culture needs a lot of funds and contributions. “I hope we can implement the plan,” he said.