The Government of Indonesia are in talks with their Indian counterparts to establish direct air connectivity between both the nations. Indonesia recently witnessed a 10 per cent growth in tourist footfalls from India. With this discussion Indonesia plans to fly its national carrier, Air Garuda between Jakarta and Delhi, Bali and Mumbai.
Speaking exclusively with T3, Saut Siringoringo, Consul General, Consulate General of The Republic of Indonesia said, “One of the major challenges in the India market is connectivity and visa. Recently, we have made it visa free for Indians visiting Indonesia. To address the connectivity challenge, we are in talks to fly our national carrier Air Garuda in India. This can happen anytime in 2016.”
To further promote destination Bali in India, Bali Tourism has appointed Representation World as its representatives in India. Speaking about the new development, Vineet Gopal, India Head for Bali Tourism said, “India is one of the biggest source markets for Bali. With the new development, we will aggressively promote the destination in India. We will be closely working with the travel trade fraternity and ensure to educate them about Bali. Currently, Bali receives around 88,000 tourists from India. By December 2016, we want the figures to go up to 1, 20,000. For the same, we will be planning roadshows, fairs and trade engagement programmes in India.”
Also, Bali Tourism plans to introduce specialist programme for B2B as well as B2C in India. The new programme is expected to be rolled out before March 2016.