JAKARTA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is tapping opportunities from India's lucrative outbound tour market, which recorded significant growth in the last few years, by taking part in an India's major travel event in Mumbai.
Tourism Deputy Minister for Foreign Marketing Affairs I Gde Pitana said on Tuesday that Indonesia's presence in India's Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) in Mumbai was a proof of Indonesia's willingness to attract visitors from India.
Pitana said India has a tremendous outbound market with 20,380,000 recorded in 2015, up 11.1 percent from that of a year earlier.
"Around 45 percent of India's outbound travellers came from Mumbai, India's second largest business city after New Delhi. So, Mumbai is also a very potential city to promote our 10 new tourist destinations," Pitana said.
Some 1,150 exhibitors from 50 nations attempted to attract potential visitors from India during the event, which is expected to be visited by more than 13,000 people.
For the same purpose to lure more Indian visitors, Indonesia took part in India's largest tourism event of 2017 South Asia Travel Tourism and Expo (SATTE) in New Delhi last week.
India has been among Indonesia's top 10 market for source of visitors with 293,415 recorded in 2015, a 23-percent increase from 2014.
"The significant growth of Indian visitors to Indonesia was due to government's expanding visa-free program and more direct flights operated by (flag carrier airline) Garuda Indonesia from Mumbai to Indonesia's big cities of Jakarta, Medan, Denpasar and Surabaya," Pitana's deputy for Asia Pacific market Vincensius Jemadu said.
Indonesia welcomed more than 12 million foreign visitors last year, and is expected to see 15 million ones this year.
With a target to welcome 20 million foreign tourists by 2019, Indonesia is striving to build 10 new tourist destinations across the country, which are expected to be on a par with the resort island of Bali.
