Indonesia keen to further expand tourism cooperation with China: minister

JAKARTA - As influx of Chinese tourists to Indonesia continued to grow in recent years, Indonesia is keen to expand cooperation in tourism with China to facilitate Chinese tourists and create attractive tour packages for them, an Indonesia minister said on Friday.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that Indonesia had received 1.8 million Chinese tourists as of October and the figure was expected to reach more than 2 million ones in 2017.

"The growth was 45 percent, compared to their arrival figure in the corresponding period last year," the minister said, citing the influx of Chinese tourists to Indonesia during the period.

He added that Chinese tourists contributed the most to Indonesia's foreign tourist figure at present, surpassing Singapore, Malaysia and Australia which used to dominate the figure previously.

He added that his ministry has set target to receive 5 million Chinese tourists, or 25 percent from the 20 million foreign tourists target by 2019.

Indonesia expects to receive 3.5 million Chinese tourists from 17 million foreign tourists targeted for next year, he said.

Conveying Indonesia's efforts to attract more tourists from China, the minister said that his ministry has been actively made promotions to attract more Chinese to spend the Spring Festival holiday in Indonesia.

"We did the promotion related to Chinese's Spring Festival since November," he said.

To achieve the tourism targets and provide more accommodation for Chinese tourists, the minister said Indonesia would provide more Mandarin-speaking guides, to support more direct flights from China to more of Indonesian cities.

"We already asked for assistance from Chinese consulate general office in Denpasar to teach Mandarin language to our guides and sent students to China to learn the language and how to serve Chinese tourists," he added.

The minister also expected Chinese investors to take part in Indonesia's plan to develop more destinations, called 10 New Bali, and integrated sea transportation system which he believed will integrate with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative "fits with our development of marine tourism. As we are in this field, we give full support for the initiative," the minister said.

The minister planned to build a tour package in observing China's ancient navy commander Zheng He and his voyage throughout Indonesia centuries ago.

"Zheng He is also very famous in Indonesia. We can start by developing tourism package of Zheng He," he said.

According to the minister, Zheng visited 10 cities in Indonesia that spanned from Batam to Bali. Conveying his plan, the tour packages can be accommodated through flights as well as cruise ships that starts from Batam and ends in Bali.