Jakarta, Oct 17 (Antara Bali) - The Tourism Ministry is teaming up with private parties to achieve the target of tourist arrivals for 2015 at 10 million.
"One of the efforts we are making is teaming up with private parties to bring foreign tourists to the country," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said here on Saturday.
The move is in line with the government's aim of making the tourism sector the main engine of economic growth amid the global economic slowdown, he said.
The minister said he supported the activities carried out by Herbalife International to hold Future Millionaire Team Retreat in Bali from 15 to 18. The event brought together more than 2,000 participants from Asia and the Pacific.
The government has set the target of tourist arrivals for this year at 10 million.
By August 2015, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia reached about 6.3 million, up by 2.71 percent from the same period of last year.
The other step taken by the government to increase the number of tourist arrivals is providing tourists from 90 countries with visa-free facilities for short-term visit.
"The tourism sector which contributed Rp140 trillion is the fifth biggest foreign exchange earner. We expect the tourism sector will contribute Rp240 trillion to the state revenues in 2019," he said.
The Tourism Ministry has observed that until October 2015, the government's visa-free policy has significantly boosted foreign tourist arrivals from 30 out of the total 47 countries being offered the facility.
The number of tourist arrivals has increased by 16 percent since August, compared to only 2.9 percent during the January-July 2015 period.
The most significant surge was observed from China, with an increase of 24 percent in August, in comparison with the same period last year, I Gde Pitana, the deputy in charge of international tourism marketing development of the tourism ministry, stated recently.
The government is offering visa-free facility to the citizens of 47 countries from October 2015 as the policy was earlier only applicable to 45 countries.
The new policy is intended to boost the number of foreign tourist arrivals, which is expected to reach 20 million by 2019.
As the number of tourists to Indonesia exceeded all expectations in 2014, the government has extended the target from 10 million to 12 million foreign tourists for 2015. (WDY)
