JAKARTA, July 12 (Xinhua) -- In a bid to comply with targets set in its ultimate sector of tourism, Indonesia planned to expand direct flights serving Indonesia-India routes to attract more Indian visitors, an Indonesian minister said here.
The plan came up after learning huge potentiality from Indian visitors whose arrival to Indonesia continued to grow in the past few years with limited direct flights serving Indian cities to Indonesia.
"We have seen more than 370,000 Indian visitors arrived in Indonesia last year. It means around 1,000 people came in Indonesia per day," Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said.
Direct flight to India was added recently with the opening of Air Asia X Indonesia's new route serving resort island of Bali to Mumbai in May.
Meanwhile, another Indonesian airlines, Batik Air, would open soon its direct flights serving Indonesian cities to Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai.
According to official data, arrival of Indian visitors to Indonesia was recorded at 376,802 last year, higher than 271,252 a year earlier. The number is expected to grow up to 550,000 this year.
Indonesia has set target to welcome 15 million foreign visitors this year after receiving more than 12 million last year. The nation expects to receive 20 million visitors by 2019.
