Indonesia has decided to offer Visa-on-Arrival to travellers from India. “India will soon be included in Indonesia’s visa-free list. The process to facilitate the same is ongoing,” said Saut Siringoringo, Consul General, the Republic of Indonesia, at the Indonesia Sales Mission in Mumbai.
“India is an important and the seventh biggest tourism market for Indonesia. The number of inbound Indian travellers is increasing, especially for incentive trips. We are expecting 250,000 Indian travellers in 2015, an increase from the 234,000 travellers in 2014,” stated Taufik Nurhidayat, Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Promotion, Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. The number of Indian visits increased about 16.23 per cent to 237,990 in 2014 compared to 204,756 in 2013. In the current year, from January till May, Indonesia has registered 107,933 tourist arrivals from India.
“The average duration of stay for Indian travellers is seven to nine days, and they are majorly from the leisure segment. Ninety per cent of them travel to Bali. Second to that comes Jakarta, which has many Hindu temples locally known as candi. India and Indonesia share many similarities and both are very tolerant countries. Creative products such as spa and MICE are common between the two countries,” added Siringorigo. “Tourism is growing rapidly in India. Outbound tourism from India will grow from 15 million to 50 million by 2020,” stated Sirigorigo.
This year, Indonesia expects 12 million international visitors to the county. By 2019, it has a target of having 20 million tourists.
