JAKARTA, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Transport Ministry has asked airlines to open routes at newly-developed tourism destinations to help lure holidaymakers visiting the areas, a senior official said on Thursday.
The call was made as the tourism ministry has been developing 10 new tourist resorts called "prioritized tourism destination" across the archipelago country.
"I beg the opening of new route is not only prioritized in an area with high passenger rate," said Suprasetyo, director general for Civil Aviation of the Transport Ministry.
"Should an airline submit a request for a license to open a new route at such area, we will enclose it with a license for opening a route at low passenger rate area so that the number of passengers visiting the site will rise," he said.
The director suggested airlines to apply a cross-subsidy scheme if the opening of a route in the low-passenger-rate area is not economically beneficial for business.
Indonesia eyes 12 million foreign tourist arrivals this year and last year, and expects it to jump to 20 million in 2019.
In 2015, a total of about 10 million foreign visitors visited Indonesia.
