Indonesia's QR payment standard now works for visitors from six countries, with more to come
Tourists can pay with their home banking apps from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and China. Bank Indonesia wants to add India, Australia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.
Bank Indonesia is expanding the cross-border version of QRIS, the country's national QR payment standard, to encourage tourists to spend more, OpenGov Asia reported. QRIS lets visitors pay at Indonesian merchants with their own country's banking or payment app.
The service currently links Indonesia with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and China. Visitors from those markets make up only about 40 per cent of international arrivals, so the central bank has identified Saudi Arabia, India, Vietnam and Australia as possible next connections.
Why it matters to the economy
International arrivals rose from 11.68 million in 2023 to 15.39 million in 2025, but average spending per visitor fell to about $1,267, according to Bank Indonesia. "Connectivity not only connects systems, but also connects users with a broader economic ecosystem," said Senior Deputy Governor Aida S. Budiman. At the FEKDI x IFSE 2026 event in Jakarta the bank also launched the Indonesia Travel Pack, a platform for visitors' payment, travel and connectivity services.
Inbound cross-border QR transactions reached 17.8 million between 2022 and August 2026, worth 6.2 trillion rupiah, about $345.7 million. Indonesians travelling abroad made five million such transactions worth 1.85 trillion rupiah.
Built on a domestic base
Domestically QRIS has 69.3 million users and more than 47 million merchants, 96.7 per cent of them micro, small and medium-sized businesses. That is the real achievement: a single public standard that lets a street vendor accept digital payment with a printed code. Linking it to neighbours' systems extends the same benefit to visitors, and is one of the most concrete examples of regional digital public infrastructure in Southeast Asia.
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