Bali to tourists: ‘no ban on sex’ after people started cancelling holidays

After the Indonesian government proposed a new law of making sex outide of wedlock illegal and punishable offence for all including tourists, the Bali Tourism since then has suffered a massive setback in terms of hotel bookings. A number of tourists have started cancelling their hotel bookings in Bali.
Considering the current situations, the Bali Hotels Association is asking tourists to stay calm and continue with their planned activities or holidays in Bali as usual. The news took an unexpected turn when reports started flooding in that a number of Australian tourists were cancelling their holiday plans in Bali.

The statement issued mentioned a few important laws which are as follow:

1) It read that act commonly mentioned as the “Adultery Act” is only a recommendation till now. The act is not yet passed formally and cannot be enforced.
2) Based on feedback, the Indonesian government has decided to postpone the act for an indefinite period.

3) Bali Government office is now encouraging tourists to stay calm and not cancel their plans.

Many Indonesians in the predominantly Muslim country were outraged by the proposed laws and Balinese tourism operators were frightened the ban would scare off tourists, prompting President Joko Widodo to indefinitely postpone the legislative changes.

Affect on tourism

The Australian Government has already issued a travel advice against Indonesia, warning tourists as more than one million Australians visited Bali last year. In the advisory, they have mentioned that tourists travelling to Bali could be jailed for having sex outside of marriage only if the law is passed.