Premarital sex ban ‘will not affect’ tourists to Indonesia

Visitors to Bali will not be charged under Indonesia’s newly ratified criminal code banning sex outside marriage.

On December 6, Indonesia’s parliament approved the new law with a punishment of up to one year in jail for Indonesian residents found guilty.

Cohabitation will be punishable by six months in prison or a fine.

Business groups, potential investors, and human rights activists protested the new law, terming it an infringement on freedom.

There were also concerns over the law making the country a less attractive tourist destination while it is still trying to recover from the effects of the COVID pandemic.

Indonesia recorded a total of four million tourists in 2020, ranking 44th in the world in absolute terms. In 2019, more than 16 million people visited Indonesia.

Dismissing concerns that the revised laws may scare tourists from its shores, Wayan Koster, governor of Bali, Indonesia’s top holiday hotspot, said authorities would maintain privacy and not check the marital status of tourists.

In a statement on Sunday, he said Bali would be “comfortable and safe to be visited”.

“Those who visit or live in Bali would not need to worry with regard to the entry into force of the Indonesian criminal code,” he said.

“There will be no checking on marital status upon check-in at any tourism accommodation, such as hotels, villas, apartments, guest houses, lodges and spas.”

Koster added that provisions in the criminal code had been altered from an earlier, stricter version so that the Bali government “would provide a better guarantee of everyone’s privacy and comfortableness”.