• Indonesian tour companies are still working to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic’s terrible effects.
• In three years, the new criminal code will go into force and apply to all residents of the nation, including citizens of Indonesia and other countries as well as tourists.
• The “Bali bonk prohibition” has been widely covered in the neighboring country of Australia, where several newspapers first reported it.

The contentious regulations, which some have dubbed a “disaster” for human rights, also prohibit unmarried couples from cohabitating and place limitations on people’s freedoms of speech and worship. This week, there were demonstrations in Jakarta, and legal challenges to the laws are anticipated.

In three years, the new criminal code will go into force and apply to all residents of the nation, including citizens of Indonesia and other countries as well as tourists.

The “Bali bonk prohibition” has been widely covered in the neighbouring country of Australia, where several newspapers first reported it.

According to some analysts, the new criminal code is unlikely to have an impact on visitors in part because any prosecution would necessitate a complaint made by the accused couple’s children, parents, or spouse.

However, a Human Rights Watch researcher warned that the new code “will be a problem” in some situations.

Australia, which was Indonesia’s top source of tourists before to the pandemic, is a major contributor to the country’s economy. Every month, thousands of people take flights to Bali, a tropical island, to enjoy the warm weather, indulge in cheap Bintang beer, and party all night on the beaches.

Numerous Australian graduate students travel to Bali every year to celebrate graduating from high school, and Bali marriages are fairly prevalent.

An excursion to Bali is regarded as a rite of passage for many young Australians. Others visit there a few times a year for brief breaks at a low cost.

There was considerable uncertainty about upcoming travels as soon as word spread that the raft of new legislation, which had been simply rumours for years, were becoming reality.

Users on Facebook pages for Indonesian tourism attempted to make sense of the adjustments and what they meant for foreign tourists.

Others who were not married stated they would visit somewhere else if the rules prevented them from sharing a hotel room with their spouse. Some said they would start travelling with their marriage documents.

On the Facebook page Bali Travel Community, one person said, “You will be bribing your way out.”

Others agreed that it was “scare tactics” that would be impossible to implement, while one person stated that it was a “good way to kill the Bali tourism economy.”

‘Australians shouldn’t be worried’

According to the new criminal code, unmarried couples who engage in sexual activity can face up to a year in prison and those who live together can face up to six months in jail if a complaint is first made by the accused couple’s children, parents, or spouse.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s justice ministry made an effort to allay fears by claiming that since anyone filing a police complaint would probably be an Indonesian national, there was less risk for foreigners.

According to Albert Aries, “it indicates Australian [tourists] shouldn’t be frightened,” according to a report on the Australian news website WAToday.com.

However, detractors claim that tourists risk becoming trapped.

According to Andreas Harsono, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, “let’s say an Australian visitor has a boyfriend or girlfriend who is a local”.

“The visitor was then reported to the police by the local parents or brothers or sisters. It will be a difficulty.”
According to Mr. Harsono, the claim that police will only look into a complaint made by a family member is perilous in and of itself since it invites “selective law enforcement.”

He explained to media, “It means that it will only be applied against selected targets.”

Hotels or foreign visitors may allow certain police personnel to demand bribes, or certain politicians may utilise, for example, the blasphemy law to imprison their opponents.

There is a strong undercurrent of worry even though most of the online conversation mirrored the “no worries, mate” attitude that is characteristic of Australians.

Australians are well aware of the seriousness of running afoul of Indonesian law, even for seemingly small offences.

However, Bali cannot afford for its tourism industry to suffer another setback. Slowly recovering from the pandemic, many families and companies are still attempting to make up for what they lost.

According to the Indonesia Institute, a non-governmental organisation based in Perth, a record 1.23 million Australian tourists travelled to Bali in 2019.

Compare that to 2021, when the pandemic, according to Statistica’s figures, prevented just 51 foreign visitors from visiting the island over the entire year.

The number of international visitors to Indonesia rose to nearly 470,000 in July 2022, according to the Indonesian National Statistic Bureau, the largest amount since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in October of last year.

The new laws, according to Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson, will “blow up Bali’s tourism,” he wrote in a tweet.

‘I am very dependent on tourists’

Yoman, a tour guide who has worked in Bali since 2017, told that the new restrictions might have a “very terrible” impact not only on Bali but also on the rest of Indonesia.

I truly depend on tourism, so I am very, very concerned, he added.

Events in Bali’s past, both man-made and natural disasters, have reduced the number of tourists who visit the island.

“The Gulf War, the bombing of Bali, the Mount Semeru and Mount Rinjani volcano eruptions, and then Covid. Tourism in Bali is readily impacted, “added Yoman.

However, the Indonesian government has introduced programmes in an effort to entice tourists back to its picturesque shores.

It recently revealed a new, alluring visa option that would allow visitors to stay on the island for up to ten years.

Of course, visitors from other countries could also be impacted.

Melissa Giroux, a Canadian travel writer who lived in Bali for 18 months in 2017, told the BBC that she was “surprised” that the rule was really passed after years of discussion.

Many tourists will choose to travel elsewhere rather than take the chance of getting arrested once the ban is put into effect, according to Ms. Giroux, who writes the blog A Broken Backpack.

And I’m not even including the single visitors to Bali who come to party or the folks who fall in love while travelling.

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