REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli said the governmenr will waive visa requirement for short term visitors from 84 more countries hoping to boost number of tourists visiting the country.
"There are 84 more countries we decided today to grant visa free travel to be effective this week," Rizal said after a coordinating meeting here on Monday.
Among the 84 countries include Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Palestine, Honduras, Pakistan, Mongolia. Sierra Leone, Uruguay, Bosnia Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Israel, Albania, Mozambique, Macedonia, El Salvador, Zambia, Moldova, Madagascar, Georgia, Namibia, Kiribati, Armenia, Bolivia, Bhutan, Guatemala, Mauritania and Paraguay.
Rizal said he hoped that the visa waiving facility would boost the number of foreign tourists to the country, which hopes to attract 20 million foreign tourists in 2019.
A strong growth of 19 percent was recorded in the number of foreign visitors after the granting of visa free travel for 47 new countries last October.
"The growth was much higher than a normal growth of 6-8 percent," Rizal said.
The government would also increase the number of workers in the tourism sector from 3 million to 7 million in five years.
The 84 countries would add to 90 countries already granted visa free facility bringing the total number to 174 countries, the minister said.
"Offering visa-free travel is one of the easiest ways to boost tourist numbers," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said earlier.
Neighboring Malaysia offers visa-free travel to 164 countries and Thailand to 56 countries.
Both Malaysia and Thailand attract far more tourists than Indonesia each year.
Last year, Indonesia recorded 9 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2014, rising from 8.8 million visitors in 2013.
in the same year Thailand recorded 26 million foreign tourist arrivals and Malaysia recorded 27 million foreign tourists.
"By waiving visa requirements, we can attract more tourists than Thailand or Malaysia in two years," Arief has said.
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