It will take another three years for a new law to be enforced in Indonesia, but tourism leaders from both the private and public sector are extremely alarmed about a new criminal code, that was approved by the Indonesian Parliament.

Sex outside marriage will be punished in Indonesia by up to one year in prison, and this applies to tourists and foreign residents regardless of religious beliefs. There won’t be a tourism police monitoring hotel bedrooms, but a complaint needs to be filed by an involved party, including friends or parents.

The Indonesian Minister of justice told news reporters he was proud that this code after 15 years in the making will now become law, so Indonesian values can be protected.

Maulana Yusran, the Secretary-General of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA) said the new criminal code was totally counter-productive at a time when the economy and tourism were starting to recover from the pandemic.

Indonesia, a member of ASEAN is the largest Muslim country in the world. Indonesia has also one of the largest travel and tourism industries in the world, with Hindu-dominated Bali being the name brand for the country.

In the conservative province of Aceh homosexuality has been punished by public stoning, but Aceh is not a known tourism destination.

The Indonesian parliament also decided to include speaking out against the president or some government organizations or officials to be a criminal offense.

This development is not only alarming to the tourism industry currently recovering from the COVID pandemic, but also to Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, including the World Tourism Network.

“We deeply regret the government has closed its eyes. We have already expressed our concern to the ministry of tourism about how harmful this law is,” he said.

If this will change the prediction for Bali to receive six million visitors in 2025 is now unclear. Before COVID the number of arrivals was 6 million.