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Indonesia presses aviation sector to meet tourism targets

Xinhua, November 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Indonesia is pressing its aviation authorities to boost up the number of plane seats in a bid to meet targets in tourism sector that has been set as the nation's core business.

Sufficient number of plane seats is the key for the nation's success in attaining foreign visitor number targets as 75 percent of them are accommodated by flights, Tourism Ministry Arief Yahya said at a signing ceremony of a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Tourism ministry, airport administrators and air navigation agency.

"Foreign visitors very much rely on airlines. Through the MoU we intend to encourage Angkasa Pura I and II, AirNav and airlines to improve their contribution in attaining the target of 20 million foreign visitors by 2019," the minister said.

He said that to achieve the 2019 tourism target, the country needs to increase plane seats provided by domestic and international airlines to 30 million.

The current 19.5 million plane seats are only capable to meet 12 million foreign visitors targeted by the government this year, he said.

Under the MoU, related institutions agree to exchange data and information, undertake joint tourism promotion, jointly conducting market and connectivity analysis, synchronize airport capacity and tour destination expansion plans.

Immediate efforts including expanding airport terminal, parking areas for planes and developing rapid exit taxiway in several airports are needed to meet the target for next year.

Indonesia's 2019 tourism target was 100 percent higher than the 10 million recorded last year. The country expects to earn more than 24 billion U.S. dollars from tourism sector by that year.

Ten new tour destinations across the archipelago are now being developed, to par with foreign tourists' much-favored resort island of Bali. Endit