Visitors to Bali will be hit with $10 tourists tax ‘to protect environment and culture’

Tourists will have to pay a $10 (£7.70) fee to visit the Indonesian island of Bali next year, officials have confirmed, with the destination hoping the measure will help preserve its culture.

Tourism-dependent Bali attracts millions of foreign arrivals each year, and the 150,000 rupiah levy has long been talked about. In recent months, a government minister suggested implementing a charge in the hope of cracking down on “a rise in unruly behaviour”.

The fee will have to be paid electronically and will apply to foreign tourists entering Bali from abroad or from other parts of Indonesia, he said.

The levy will not apply to domestic Indonesian tourists.

“The payment of a fee for foreign tourists applies only one time during their visit to Bali,” said I Wayan Koster, the island’s governor.

Mr Koster added that he didn’t believe that the new tax would deter visitors: “It’s not a problem. We will use it for the environment [and] culture, and we will build better quality infrastructure so travelling to Bali will be more comfortable and safe.”

More than two million tourists visited Bali in 2022, according to official figures, with the island rebounding following the Covid-19 pandemic.

But with the influx of travellers has come widely reported disruptive behaviour, and the chairman of the Bali Tourism Board, Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana, said he hopes the tourism tax will “prevent Bali from becoming known only as a cheap destination”, as “cheap destinations bring in cheap tourists who tend to cause a lot of problems”.

In April, a Russian woman who posed nude for photos in front of a sacred tree in Bali was deported by authorities. Around the same time, an Australian woman was deported after arguing with police when she was pulled over for rising a scooter without a helmet. Her heated exchange with the police was captured on video and went viral on social media.

In March, a Russian tourist apologised after posing semi-naked on a sacred site on the island.