Indonesia aims to boosts competitiveness of tourism sector in region

The Indonesian government vows to raise competitiveness of the country's tourism sector in the region, a minister said here on Thursday.

Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya disclosed the country has better competitiveness on prices, but remains weak on infrastructures.

Mr.Yahya disclosed that the government is improving infrastructures to make them at least on par with those in the neighboring countries.

"The weakness of our tourism sector is on infrastructure. Now we are boosting it," he said at Jakarta Convention Center.

Minister Yahya admitted that Thailand and Malaysia are the main competitors in attracting foreign holiday makers.

"Going forwards, we aim to defeat Malaysia first and after that, Thailand," he said.

The minister was upbeat over the target as Indonesia has witnessed hike on ranks of the sector at the globe.

He said that the rank of Indonesia's tourism sector rose to the 50th this year, compared with the 70th in 2013.

Still, it is below Malaysia and Thailand which are at the 25th and 35th respectively, said Yahya.

Indonesia's revenue from the sector reaches 11 billion U.S. dollars last year compared with 21 billion U.S. dollars and 35 billion U.S. dollars received by Malaysia and Thailand respectively, according to him.

Indonesia aims to extend free visa facilities to 45 countries, compared with Malaysia and Thailand which have freed the facilities to respectively 164 and 56 countries, he said.

The number of foreign holiday makers visiting Indonesia was up by 3.53 percent to 7.19 million people from a year earlier, according to the national statistic bureau.

For whole of this year, Indonesia expects 10 million foreign tourist arrivals and for the next five years, the country sees 20 million foreign holiday makers visiting the country annually, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Rizal Ramli has said. Enditem