Indonesia aims to more than double its tourist arrivals from India by 2019 and hopes that its new liberal visa policy will increase the country's popularity as a friendly destination.
Rita Sofia, a deputy director at the Ministry of Tourism, said the number of Indians visiting Indonesia is projected to grow to 500,000 in four years compared with 237,990 in 2014.
Indonesia included Indians in its free visa on arrival scheme from October this year as part of its efforts to become a major Asian holiday destination.
The Southeast Asian country, known for its natural beauty and vibrant culture, has set a target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) by 2019.
"We are focused on attracting more tourists from Asia-Pacific countries because of connectivity and cultural closeness. China and India are going to be important because of their huge outbound travel growth," Sofia told BW Businessworld in an interview.
"We want to do more promotions in Asia. The region has big population, incomes are rising, air fares are low and there are a lot of similarities in our service culture," she said.
Using the tagline Wonderful Indonesia, the country's new tourism promotion campaign in India seeks to offer visitors a wider variety of attractions such as adventure, honeymoon, cuisine, golf, trekking, sailing and shopping.
"We will promote all segments to Indian travellers," Sofia said, highlighting Indonesia as an all-year-round destination.
Though Indonesia is gaining as a hassle-free holiday spot for Indian travellers, a lack of direct air connections limits the growth potential.
At present most Indians travel to Indonesia via the regional transport hubs of Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Indonesia is working with the Indian government to have direct flights between Jakarta and major Indian cities.
AirAsia Indonesia X, a long haul service arm of budget airline AirAsia, is seeking approval from India's civil aviation authorities to connect either Jakarta or Bali with Mumbai next year.
The new tourism push covers areas such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and cruises.
"MICE is a big industry in Indonesia with facilities available across the country. India's corporate sector is very important to us because of its expansion in Southeast Asia. We hope Indian companies would look at Indonesia as a destination for their events," Bambang Sunaryo of Wisdom Mice hospitality group told BW Businessworld.
With the Indonesian archipelago comprising some 17,000 islands, marine tourism is being explored in a big way.
The government recently eased regulations for foreign pleasure yachts to sail to and around Indonesian islands.
Halal tourism targeted at Muslim travellers is also growing. Indonesia's reputation for halal tourism received a boost when the island of Lombok, located near Bali, was adjudged as the World's Best Halal Tourism Destination at a travel trade event.
India ranks among the top 10 sources of FTAs in Indonesia. Singaporeans lead the list of foreign visitors, followed by Malaysians, Australians, Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans.
Indonesia received 195,214 Indian visitors between January and September, and the number is likely to cross 250,000 for the whole of 2015.
International visitors are projected to grow to 12 million this year from about 9.5 million in 2014.
(Photograph: Courtesy of the Ministry Culture and Tourism, Republic of Indonesia)
_20240923203035_original_image_40.webp)
_20240923195307_original_image_32.webp)
