Indonesia sees massive growth in India tourist footfalls, wants to increase number of direct flights

Thanks to a considerable increase in arrival of Indian tourists in Bali in the recent years, Indonesia is now targeting the Indian tourism market for further growth, revealed the country’s Tourism Minister, Arief Yahya.
As per the records of Indonesia’s tourism ministry, as many as 4,85,314 Indians travelled to Bali last year. This is a straight 30 percent growth over the records of 2016, and it has put India among the top five countries that have fostered the tourist arrival growth of Bali.

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"India has a big size tourism market. We should maximize efforts to tap this market so as to attract more of them to come here," said the tourism.

While special tour packages are already being offered alongside business-to-business deals with tour operators, Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, Indonesia’ Ambassador to India said that Indian flight carriers should operate more direct flights between the two countries, owing to the growth in India tourist arrivals in Bali last year.


While India holds the third position in terms of tourist arrivals in Bali, the country holds the sixth position in terms of overall tourist arrivals in Indonesia. After getting a boost through the last year’s growth, Indonesia has set a target of attracting as many as seven lakh India tourists in the year 2018.

Speaking during a roadshow organised in Chennai by Indonesia’s tourism ministry, the ambassador said, "The air connectivity is good. Batik Air is flying to Denpasar. AirAsia is also there. But we want to have more direct flights but the bilateral air services agreement limits the number of flights. So we need Indian carriers to fly".