Indonesia: More than Bali!
The Indonesian Tourism Board is going all out to introduce India to places beyond Bali. With 3,000 inhabitable islands, it is ready to usher more Indian tourists.
TT BUREAU Bali
is usually the first place that comes to mind when you think of a holiday in Indonesia, but the country has much more to offer. “We have the island of Bali, which has been voted as the best tourist destination several times by various tourism institutions. But we also have other destinations with tourist attractions. Indonesia has 17,000 islands out of which 3,000 have been inhabited and Bali is only a small portion. Our culture is also worth exploring for tourists. We are looking at promoting other destinations such as Java, famous for its BoroBoro temple and also Western Indonesia, and the Sumatra islands,” says Rizali W. Indrakesuma, Ambassador EP, Republic of Indonesia.
Indrakesuma reveals that at least two to three million Indians visit SouthEast Asia each year. “We are the largest country in terms of population and size as compared to other neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. With more places of interest and tourism destinations, we get only 150,000 of the three million Indians coming into the region. The rest are divided amongst the other three countries. We are not even receiving 10 per cent of the Indian visitors,” he admits.
“The problem is that we are yet to have a direct flight. We are in the process of getting our national carrier Garuda Indonesia to connect India. To begin with we will have a code share between Garuda and Jet Airways”, he adds. The end of this year should see some concrete developments.
“We realise that Indian market is yet unexposed to Indonesia. We plan to change that,” he adds.