"MICE activities balance the business activity especially during a low season."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A tourism official has said that air transportation has been an important factor and so far played a significant role in the development of domestic tourism.
"We have found a fact in the field that air transportation has been playing a significant role after land transportation in mobilizing domestic tourists in Indonesia," the director of domestic tourism promotion of the ministry of tourism and creative economy, M Faried, said here on Monday.
He said the capacity of national airlines with scheduled domestic flights this year reached 99.82 million seats.
The airlines served flights to 117 cities, a significant rise compared to last year`s number.
"Last year the domestic flight capacity only reached 81.7 million seats while the number of cities served was recorded at only 104," he said.
Faried said Java with nine airports has a domestic flight capacity of 48.63 million seats or 48.72 percent of the national capacity.
Sumatra follows second with 29 airports with a domestic flight capacity of 16.88 million seats while Kalimantan in the third place with 20 airports and a domestic flight capacity of 10.51 million seats or 10.53 percent of national capacity.
Sulawesi with 11 airports has a domestic flight capacity of 10.36 million seats or 10.53 percent, Bali 5.7 million seats or 5.7 percent and Papua with 20 airports 3.56 million seats or 3.57 percent.
"Except for Jakarta and Banten, inter-provincial travels still dominate domestic tourist travels," he said.
Faried said transportation spending remained the biggest one comprising 40 percent.
He said the meeting, incentives, conference and exhibition (MICE) sector has also helped boost domestic tourism.
"MICE activities balance the business activity especially during a low season," he said.
(T.H016/Uu.H-YH/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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