|
Indonesian companies have won contracts for the visit of over 35,000 tourists from European countries, creating optimism that the country will attract more than one million visitors from Europe, the head of promotion affairs for West and East European countries at the Office of State Minister of Culture and Tourism, Rita Sofia told The Jakarta Post. "We expect that between one million and 1.5 million tourists from European countries will visit Indonesia this year," she said.
About 800,000 tourists from European countries visited Indonesia last year. Five countries -- the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain -- were the largest contributors to the number of European visitors.
The contracts were signed by Indonesian companies and their counterparts in the world's biggest tourism event, Internationale Tourismo Borse (ITB) in Berlin, held from March 11 to March 15. Representatives of 70 hotels, 30 tour operators, three tourism associations and six provincial tourism offices in the country took part in the event.
According to Ms Sofia, the State Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, told the participants of the event that Indonesia will change some things to make Indonesia more attractive for foreign tourists.
One of those changes would be that flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will resume flights from Indonesia to Europe in the middle of the year. He also told participants that Indonesia will increase the number of countries eligible for a visa-on-arrival - including Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, China, India, Kuwait and Egypt.
|
back