Direct India-Indonesia flights necessary to attract more Indian tourists

The Indonesian Tourism Ministry believes that direct flight from and to India could increase the number of Indian tourist arrivals in Indonesia.

“The main challenge is direct flights as the existing ones are just transit flights from and to India,” Dody Prianto, assistant deputy director of the Tourism Ministry, noted here.

Prianto was in Kolkata, India, for a roadshow to promote “Wonderful Indonesia,” the tourism brand of the country, at a hotel in the city, with the objective of attracting more tourists from India.

He hoped airlines, such as Garuda Indonesia, would be interested in operating direct flights between India and Indonesia.

To draw more Indian tourists to Indonesia, the ministry is intensifying tourism promotion to introduce other tourist destinations apart from Bali.

He mentioned Sumatra as one of the interesting places for Indian tourists to visit as it is located near Singapore, and its culinary dishes bear similarities to those in Indonesia.

The Tourism Ministry has set a target of attracting at least 350 thousand Indian tourists this year.

“The target is quite high, but we are optimistic that it can be achieved,” Prianto stated.

During the first semester of this year, a total of 185,911 Indian tourists had visited Indonesia, he said on the sidelines of a sales million event.