INDONESIA: 1.7 million Chinese Visitors Enter Indonesia

Head of Chinese Tourism National Administration (CNTA) Li Jinzao said that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia has risen by a good measure of 20%. In the meantime, he added that the number of Indonesian tourists to China was recorded to rise by 16%.

This reflects good tourism cooperation between the two countries. He said he hopes that the cooperation between Indonesia and China only improves with time.

Earlier, Indonesian Tourism Minister, Arief Yahya, said China is currently the biggest source of tourist arrivals in Indonesia; leaving behind Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, and Korea.

“We have set ourselves the target of attracting 20 million tourists in 2019 and nearly 50% of them will come from China,” he disclosed.

It is important to step up tourism cooperation with China to achieve the desired target.

In this regard, he accentuated how important it is to step up tourism cooperation with China to achieve the desired target. Moreover, he promised that his ministry will also be focusing on promoting the “Great China” branding.

This covers a trio of Asian countries China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Yahya also invited Chinese investors to try their luck with the Indonesian tourism industry.

We invite Chinese investors engaged in the tourism sector to invest in Indonesia which offers natural and cultural attractions. Now is the time to make long-term investments in the tourism sector, he said.

While down 1.9% from the previous month, the figure marks an increase of almost 20% than in the same month of 2015.

It was the second month in a row and the fourth time so far this year that the Chinese-governed in the tourism sector, followed closely by Singaporean and Australian travelers. Most of the Chinese tourists opted for beautiful and very beachy Bali as their destination.

The Tourism Ministry’s deputy minister for overseas promotion, I Gde Pitana, attributed to the rising trend of the holiday season in August in China and the government’s efforts to attract more visitors’ discussion.

He said the ministry would remain focused on its tourism promotion program in China until the end of the year to introduce the archipelago in several major cities, such as Beijing and Shenzhen.

The government aims to attract at least 1.7 million Chinese tourists this year; 1.3 million more than the last year. It has scrapped the visa fees for Chinese travelers, making China one of 169 countries the nationals of which enjoy free entry to Indonesia.

This is not all. For this month, the ministry has geared up for the Chinese Golden Week; a seven-day national holiday period that starts on Oct. 1.

It has established healthy connections with travel agents and tour operators in Bali and China since July to offer tourism packages to places like Bali and Manado, North Sulawesi.

“That way, Chinese companies won’t send their employees to Thailand for the holidays. They can just go to those destinations instead,” Pitana said.

He also mentioned that several airlines were also on board to achieve the 1.7 million tourist target to help this tourism plan further.

The country’s largest low-cost carrier, Lion Air, is serving direct flights from six Chinese cities. The airline hopes to fly at least 30,000 Chinese tourists to Manado by the end of the year. Whereas, Garuda Indonesia has flown holidaymakers from three major Chinese cities to Jakarta. These Chinese cities are namely Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

BPS head Suhariyanto said that the visitors contained in the statistics were all tourists and not workers and that it was not just in one country but others as well; meaning the Chinese were traveling all over the world as tourists.

“The surge is not happening in Indonesia alone, but also in other countries, supported by the tourists’ higher earning per capita as China’s economy grows,” he said.

Hotels have started facilitating the tourists in just the right way

Moreover, the hotels have started facilitating the tourists in just the right way. Jayakarta Hotels and Resorts president director Edwin Dhanu said the chain had prepared several services to accommodate the increasing number of tourists.

“We have prepared a separate, special breakfast called Chinese breakfast in which we provide bread, porridge, and dim sum,” he said that it was different from the full buffet breakfast offered exclusively to Australian tourists.

Jayakarta also employed Mandarin-speaking staff in the guest reservation divisions in Jakarta and Bali who tend to most of the Chinese guests.

The both countries are doing everything to keep growing and keep their tourism industry booming with each other’s help.