Rizal Ramli, coordinating minister of maritime affairs has on Tuesday announced a visa free entry for the citizens of 47 countries to travel in Indonesia by October. With the announcement, countries to avail the visa free entry to travel in Indonesia are 92 countries.
He said that the previous extension of free visa to 45 countries has yielded some positive results, as the tourist arrival got increased by 15 percent. Similarly, the extension to more countries is expected to double the foreign exchange to $20 million dollars within the next five years, he added.
"Originally it was proposed to be made effective in January next year but we don’t want to wait too long. In addition we want to take advantage of the year end tourist season," he mentioned on Tuesday.
Australia and New Zealand are included in the new list of countries to avail free visa. In the April, Indonesia has added 30 more countries to become 45 countries that now become 92 countries.
Indonesia has received 9 million foreign arrivals in last year 2014, recorded an increase from 8.8 million of tourists in 2013.
The minister said new policy is expected to add more jobs in the tourism sector.
At present, other ASEAN neighbors of Malaysia and Thailand attracts tourists of 27 million and 26 million respectively in the last year. Also, Malaysia offers visa free travel to 164 countries and Thailand to 56 countries.
Some of the countries that joined in the new list are china, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, Netherlands and other countries.
