Only 35% Of International Visitors Found To Be Paying Bali’s Tourism Tax

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It is nearly a year since Bali launched its Tourism Tax Levy policy, and new data shows that even fewer tourists are making the contribution than first thought.

Figures from 2024 suggested that only 40% of tourists made their IDR 150,000 contribution, but now it seems as few as 35% of tourists are paying their tourism tax. 

The Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjokorda Bagus Pemayun, spoke to the media to confirm the latest figures. He revealed that in 2024, Bali welcomed 6.4 million international tourists. He noted that this exceeded the provincial tourism target of 6 million tourists for the last 12-month period. 

If all of these 6.4 million international arrivals had paid their IDR 150,000 Bali Tourism Tax levy, then the Bali Provincial Government would have a healthy IDR 960 billion in the bank, yet it appears that only 35% of arrivals have been making the contribution.

Pemayun explained that there is only IDR 317 billion has been collected. He also noted that of the 35% of tourists who have paid, over 90% have done so before arriving in Bali. 

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Pemayun told reporters, “Some foreign tourists pay before departure, but at the airport, there is no inspection related to the [tourism tax]. This makes for many tourists [who] escape our system.”

Pemayun called for more collaboration across the tourism sector to help encourage more tourists to pay the fee, and to make it easier for them to do so.

He noted “So far we have collaborated with BCA and BPD payment gateways. Of course we need other channels such as Doku, which holds the WeChat application used in China.”

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The Bali Tourism Tax Levy was introduced on the 14th February 2024 and was a policy created to help generate funds to ‘nurture nature’, to ‘preserve culture’, and to ‘level up tourism infrastructure’, but as yet, the public has not been informed as to how funds have been or will be spent; despite fewer funds being gathered than initially hoped.

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While only 35% of international tourists are paying the fee, it should be noted that the policy outlines how this is a mandatory payment. However, with few legal punishments or implications in place for those found not to be paying, it’s very hard for authorities to force tourists to pay. 

In order to pay the Bali Tourism Tax Levy before arriving in the province, tourists must head to the Love Bali website or download the Love Bali app.

The process is simple: fill out the form with basic personal details and fill in card details to process the payment. Once complete, tourists are sent a QR code voucher that they must keep easily accessible on their smartphone or print it off and be ready to present it to tourism office staff should they be stopped for spot checks. 

Unlike the eVisa on Arrival, where tourists can pay and apply for up to five tourists at a time when it comes to the Bali Tourism Tax levy, each traveler must make a separate payment, including for children and babies.

For now, it remains the case that the Bali Tourism Tax Levy is a mandatory payment for all international tourists to Bali, but there are no criminal implications for not doing so.

In September 202,4 the Acting Governor of Bali, Sang Made Mahendra Jaya, explained that he and his teams would be looking into implementing punishments for tourists found to be dodging the fee. 

Acting Governor Jaya shared, “If there are no sanctions, no, we can’t do anything if they don’t pay. In the future, there will be sanctions with a minimum penalty of ten times (the tourism tax fee) or a week of imprisonment; they must pay.”

The Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, has also given his backing for the introduction of punishments for tourists found not to be paying the tax.