Free Tourist Visa for 30 countries

Great news for visitors from a lot of European and other countries and especially those that enter Indonesia more often. The Secretariat of the Indonesian government announced on their website this week that with immediate effect, tourists from 30 countries can enter Indonesia and Bali via certain entry ports for free for 30 days. However other than the paid tourist visa (most recently 35 USD) , the free visa can not be extended by 30 days.  Those visitors that plan to stay more than 30 days in Bali, are advised to buy  the tourist visa on arrival and extend it via an agent at immigration in Denpasar.  Visitors on a free visa need to leave the country after 30 days.

The newly added countries are Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirate and the United States.
The entry ports are:  Soekarno Hatta (Jakarta), Ngurah Rai (Bali), Kuala Namu (Medan), Juanda (Surabaya), Hang Nadim (Batam), Pelabuhan Laut Sri Bintan, Pelabuhan Laut Sekupang, Pelabuhan Laut Batam Center and Pelabuhan Laut Tanjung Uban (Riau).
Indonesia aims to increase the number of foreign tourists through the visa-free policy to 11 million in 2015  from 9.44 million last year.