Bali Travelers Assured New Tourist Tax Takes Just 23 Seconds To Pay

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As leaders in Bali are busy putting the infrastructure in place to introduce the new tourism tax in 2024, Bali lovers are quite rightly asking some important questions.

As more details emerge about the new tourism tax for all international arrivals to the Island of the Gods, it seems that the authorities are taking a pretty considerate approach. 

According to the Head of the Bali Tourism Board, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, making the tourism tax payment on arrival in Bali will not eat into that all-important vacation time….every second counts.

He has confirmed that making the IDR 150,000 per person payment will take no longer than 23 seconds.

There have also been rumors that the payment will eventually be able to be paid online before arriving in Bali, making it an even smoother arrival process.

Pemayun told reporters on Tuesday 26th September “We have tested that arriving foreign tourists will be processed by Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) with the team calculating 23 seconds, yes, so even if there is additional time it will only be a few seconds.”

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The Head of the Tourist Board has also confirmed that the tourism tax will be introduced on the 14th of February 2024.

With the quick payment process in place, Pemayun is confident that there will be no queues for tourists to make their tax payments. 

He added, “There is no reason for there to be an additional queue…we also try to look at it in peak hours in the afternoon too.”

@rosesbitha welcome baliii💛 #bali #indonesia #airport #arrived #holiday ♬ Landing di Bali – Faizal Maulana

As Pemayun has explained, there will be five payment counters in the arrivals hall of Bali’s I Guesti Ngurah Rai International Airport, and each counter will be staffed with two officers to process payments.

This means there will be a total of 20 officers on duty at any one time, and this is in addition to the payment counters for the Visa on Arrival and the counters where tourists get stamped into the country by immigration officials. 

Since the IDR 150,000 tourism tax is a levy specific to Bali, there will also be tourism tax counters in place at the domestic arrivals terminal meaning no one will be able to dodge the fee by transiting or forgetting to pay if they have been visiting other destinations in Indonesia before landing in Bali. 

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Pemayun has said, “we have anticipated it [at the domestic terminal] we will also install counters but after calculating it there aren’t that many but we will install them because we can work together with airlines [to incorporate the tax].”

Since the tourism tax was first announced industry leaders and Bali lovers have been asking about how and where the revenue generated from the fees will be spent.

Many people have called for the funds to be used to tackle the growing waste management issues on the island, tackle traffic congestion, or level up infrastructure that will benefit both tourists and local communities. 

During this most recent update, Pemayun has confirmed that the funds will be managed by the Bali Provincial Government, the Bali Tourism Office, and the BPKAD.

The funds will be used to fund projects that ‘preserve the environment, nature and culture as well as improving quality’ of the island. 

The tourism tax policy is being introduced as part of a bigger mission by the Provincial Government to promote sustainable, cultured, and dignified tourism in Bali.

In light of a growing number of cases of tourists behaving in an illegal or culturally disrespectful way in Bali leaders want to promote high-quality tourism and high-spending tourism and put legislation in place that helps generate more funds for the government to maintain the island’s most popular tourism attractions. 

Some Bali lovers have taken umbrage with the notion of a new tourism tax noting that the tourist visa on arrival now costs IDR 500,000 per person.

Whereas before the pandemic the visa-free travel policy meant that many of Bali’s most frequent visitors from Australia, the USA, New Zealand and the UK got a free 30-day stay permit on arrival. 

Though just as many tourists who are planning their visits, as well as local people, feel that the tourism tax is long overdue and is another small payment that can be viewed as a gesture of appreciation for the Island of the Gods.