Gold Coast International Airport.
IN an attempt to boost arrivals from Indonesia, the Australian government will be introducing a three-year, multiple-entry visa for Indonesian visitors to Australia next year, an extension of the current one-year visa.
Online visa applications will also be extended to all Indonesian citizens by 2017.
The initiative was announced by Peter Dutton, minister for immigration and border protection, with Andrew Robb, minister of trade and investment as well as Richard Colbeck, minister of tourism and international education during Indonesia-Australia Business Week in Jakarta yesterday.
“These initiatives will benefit Indonesia and Australia as we look to promote stronger business and tourism links between our two countries. This change reflects Australia’s close relationship with Indonesia and is part of the government’s agenda to boost our tourism sector and reduce red tape,” Dutton said.
In conjunction with Indonesia-Australia Business Week, Tourism Australia also organised the three-day Walkabout Indonesia 2015 earlier this week, where 30 tourism suppliers met up with 150 Indonesian outbound players.
John O’Sullivan, managing director and CEO of Tourism Australia said: “The objective is to build partnerships and showcase new products, as well as to explore the kind of experiences the emerging affluent middle-class market is looking for.”
He added that Tourism Australia is in the process of opening an office in Indonesia to develop the market.
There were 150,200 visitors from Indonesia to Australia in 2014, up six per cent compared to the year before, generating an estimated A$600 million (US$432 million) in tourism receipts. Arrivals are targeted to increase to between 1.2 million and 1.5 million by 2020.
In the meantime, Colbeck in his meeting with Arif Wibowo, president and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, yesterday appealed to the airline to increase the number of flights to Australia to allow more traffic between the two countries.
