Indonesia to waive visa requirements for 30 more countries

The Indonesian government is planning to waive visa requirements for 30 more countries from July 1st to attract more tourists, the Indonesian news agency, ANTARA News, has reported.

"The free visa facility may increase the number of tourist arrivals," the Deputy for Overseas Tourism Marketing Development of the Ministry of Tourism, I Gede Pitana, said after the opening of the Bali and Beyond Travel Fair.

The addition of 30 new countries to Indonesia's free visa list is expected to increase the number of tourist arrivals by around five percent to 10 million from last years 9.5 million, he added.

So far, Indonesia has applied its free visa policy for citizens of the nine member states of ASEAN as well as Chile, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Macau, Morocco and Peru.

"If the 30 countries are included in the second phase of the free visa list, the number of countries that will enjoy free visa facilities will be 45," he noted.

The 30 countries that will be added to the free visa list include India, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. He said that the government had discussed the inclusion of these 30 countries in its free visa list at length.

The Indonesian government has set itself the target of attracting 20 million tourists by 2019.

Last year, the number of tourists visiting Indonesia rose 7.19 percent to 9.44 million, up from 8.8 million in 2013, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).