Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the reason Indonesia lost the number of foreign tourist arrivals from Thailand and Vietnam was because the country implemented visa-free visits.
“We also see countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia in terms of exempting visit visas, India has now exempted visit visas for our people,” he said when met after the IndoFringe@School 2023 award ceremony and the launch of IndoFringe@School 2024 in Jakarta, Monday.
According to him, currently Indonesia has not been able to provide flexibility in exempting visit visas for foreign tourists, because it still uses the principle of reciprocity or reciprocity.
“While we are on the principle of reciprocity, until now we have not given reciprocally because it is still under study which we submitted more than three months ago,” he said.
Sandiaga said, another reason that made Indonesia lose in foreign tourist visits was the limitations in interconnectivity.
He said that his party had predicted this from the beginning, because the number of Indonesia’s interconnectivity had reached 80 percent without any additional flights and seat availability.
“We have predicted this from the beginning because our interconnectivity has reached above 80 percent in terms of flight capacity and seat availability. Without the addition of flights and seat supplies because we are an archipelago,” he said.
Nevertheless, according to him, although Indonesia has limitations in interconnectivity and visa exemptions, the cumulative number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia is still quite good at 11.7 million.
Previously in the Weekly Brief With SandiUno event, Monday (12/2). Menparekraf Sandiaga said Indonesia must be careful in implementing a policy, because currently tourist arrivals in Thailand and Vietnam are above Indonesia.