REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The government added 47 countries that will be given Indonesia visa free travel. Previously, the government only allowed the visa free travel for 45 countries.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Rizal Ramli, said that countries that will receive Indonesia visa free travel facility are 92 countries in total. It was said when he was leading a meeting attended by Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya, Director General of Immigration of Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Ronny Sompie, representatives of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Indonesian Police in Jakarta, Tuesday (1/9 ).

"At first, we proposed 50 additional countries, but countries that often have problems in drugs smuggling, export instability, and radicalism were not included,” he said, Tuesday (1/9).

Rizal stated that giving Indonesia visa free travel facility was the fastest way to increase the number of tourist in Indonesia. When the government gave Indonesia visa free travel facility to 30 countries in the first stage, the growth of foreign tourist reached 15 percent.

"The evaluation for the first stage was very positive," he added

The additional visa-free facilities to 47 countries will be given in October. The implementation of the policy in October will be effective because it coincides with the year-end holiday season.

On the same occasion, Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya said the government is projecting growth of foreign tourists up to 20 percent from visa-free for the first and second stages.

"We expected one to two million tourists in a year, or 20 percent," he said.

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