"Every year, a million Australians visit Indonesia. We wish to push for an increased number of Indonesian tourists to come to Australia," Julie Bishop said here on Monday after inaugurating the new Australian embassy.
She said now there was no need for Australian tourists to have a visa for visiting Indonesia.
She said Australia applies a universal visa system across the world.
Earlier, Australia was dropped from the list of countries that were given the visa free facility by Indonesia because Australia would not apply a reciprocal principle. However it has now been given the facility but it is only for a short visit of maximally 30 days.
From January to November 2015, the number of Australian visitors to Bali was the largest, reaching 876,748, out of a total of 3,631,195 foreign tourists to the island.
Australia is a potential market for Bali, or even Indonesia as a whole, due in general to its proximity. It has always been one of the biggest three suppliers of tourists to Bali.
The Indonesian government implemented the visa-free facility to boost the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia.
In the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2015-2019, the Indonesian government has set a target of 20 million foreign visitors with a foreign exchange income of US$20 million.
The Indonesian government would also double the number of workers in the tourist sector from three millions to seven millions within five years.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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