Indonesia receives over 6.9 million tourists in 2015 on the back of free-visa policy

Indonesia saw over 6.9 million foreign tourists arrive helped by a free-visa policy, which was implemented for citizens of 169 countries.

The Jakarta Post, quoting Heru Santoso, an Immigration Directorate General spokesman, stated that 4,095,264 of the foreigners came from 15 countries that Indonesia has reciprocal agreements with and the remaining 2,881,945 visitors were from 144 countries that do not have an agreement of such kind.

Santoso was quoted by tempo.co as saying that the figure was much below their target of 20 million tourists from abroad per year. He, however, was optimistic, saying that the number would increase in the future.

According to Santoso, there were hardly any tourists coming into Indonesia from 10 countries. He felt that the campaign needed to be strengthened further.

The free-visa policy, which was first introduced in June 2015, allowed citizens of 45 countries to stay on in Indonesia for 30 days using a free tourist visa. This permit is available at only nine entry points comprising international airports and seaports across the island country.

In March 2016, an additional 84 countries were added to this policy, taking the total number of countries covered under it to 174.

Information provided by Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry revealed that the number of tourists arriving at 19 entry points in the Southeast Asian country was 10,406,759 in 2015, a growth of 10.29 percent over its previous year. To enhance the numbers further, 10 more destinations were added.

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