Bank Indonesia has just launched an innovative new digital payment system for tourists travelling to top destinations like Bali.
The new ‘Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack’ will help tourists enjoy a smoother transition to a cashless economy.
The new Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack is being rolled out from Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Through the new service, tourists will be able to set up and access Indonesian SIM cards with mobile data and phone numbers, as well as chip-based electronic money through an e-wallet.
This will also help tourists integrate into the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) system, which is being increasingly rolled out around the country. The system enables cashless payments made through QR-code scanning and pre-paid e-wallets.
The Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia, Fillianingsh Hendarta, told reporters at the launch of the new Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack, “Ease of transactions is an important part of the tourist experience in Bali.”
The Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack is a three-element ecosystem designed to enhance the ease and speed of payment and communication for tourists arriving in Bali, allowing them to maximize their travel experiences.
Hendarta shared, “These three initiatives are aimed at strengthening Indonesia’s position as a tourist-friendly country, and increasingly preparing for a cashless and digital tourism system.”
Bank Indonesia has explained the initiative in greater detail. The national bank explained, “As a world-class tourist destination, ease of transactions is a crucial part of the tourist experience in Bali. To that end, Bank Indonesia, along with other stakeholders, has launched three key initiatives to strengthen the digital payment ecosystem in the tourism sector.”
Adding “Bank Indonesia (BI), along with stakeholders, is assisting foreign tourists by establishing a Tourism Information Center at Ngurah Rai International Airport as a service point for those newly arrived in Bali.”
“Through this service, tourists can obtain an Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack for digital transactions and a QRIS Nusantara Tourism Guidebook containing destination information and QRIS usage at various tourist attractions.”
Bank Indonesia explained further, “With the support of various parties, the experience of international tourists in Bali will be more convenient and practical. The hope is that they can easily conduct transactions, from paying for hotels, shopping, relaxing with coffee, to entering tourist destinations.”
“The impact? Smoother transactions open up opportunities for businesses and contribute to more inclusive and sustainable local economic activity.”
This new cashless initiative will be promoted to tourists upon arrival at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and represents one of the first significant steps towards a cashless system. For now, however, cash is still an essential element of day-to-day life in Bali, both for locals and visitors.
Having access to an e-SIM or local SIM card, or even a SIM with roaming capabilities, is extremely helpful during a trip to Bali, especially for accessing apps like Google Maps and services like Grab and GoJek, to name a few.
Indonesia is in the process of redenominating the rupiah in order to create a simpler numerical system for the currency. While the initial aim was to have this redenomination transition completed by 2027, top government ministers have spoken to reporters this week to say that the move is ‘still a long way off’.
The Minister Prasetyo Hadi told reporters outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta that the progress on the transition is perhaps not as close as initial reports had suggested. He told reporters, “Not yet – it’s still a long way off”.
The redenomination process would remove three zeros from the rupiah, but the value would remain the same. For example, the IDR 100,000 note, which is the largest note, would become IDR 100, and the IDR 50,000 would become just IDR 50, and so on. This would mean that tourists landing in Bali would not be overnight millionaires, as is so often the joke.
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