Bengaluru has a lot of business tourism potential, says Indonesia Consul General

February 16, 2017 03:57 pm | Updated 03:57 pm IST - Bengaluru

Indonesians, especially those in IT segment, see Bengaluru as the best place to work in India and there is a lot of business tourism potential here, said Indonesian Consul General Saut Siringoringo, who was in the city to meet the business community and prospective tourists to the archipelago.

Speaking to The Hindu , the Consul General said that 2016 saw an increase of 30 per cent of tourist traffic to Indonesia from India. “From 2,70,000 tourists we received in 2015 the number rose to over 3,36000 last year. Of this, around 67 per cent tourist traffic was received by Bali alone,” he said.

The total international tourists received by Indonesia stood at 12 million in 2016. “We have set a target of welcoming 20 million tourists by the end of 2019. We are working vigorously to reach this,” said Mr. Siringoringo.

He said Bali, which is the hub of Indonesian tourism, continues to receive the most number of international tourists. While most tourists came from Australia, India stood fifth in terms of the number of visitors.“But it is second only to China, in terms of tourism growth potential. In 2016 a total of 186,638 Indian nationals came to Bali from 118416 in 2015, an increase of 57.61 per cent,” said Mr Siringoringo.

But, there is much more to Indonesia than Bali. “When people think Indonesia they think Bali, but there are equally good places to visit in Indonesia and we want to promote them. Bali today is overcrowded. To address this we are promoting 10 other destinations. We are making necessary investments for this, including enhancing air connectivity and constructing homestays in the destinations,” he added.

A big step towards this was taken in December last year with the introduction of a flight from Mumbai to Jakarta via Bangkok in December last year. “Though a small flight, the occupancy rate has been 85 to 90 per cent. This is very encouraging for us. We would look to introduce more flights from Delhi and Bengaluru in the future,” Mr. Siringoringo said

In terms of trade too the Consulate is looking to strength ties with India. “Bilateral trade is around 16 billion US dollars, which is not enough. Despite the large size and rapid growth, the trade and investment between India and Indonesia remains modest. There are only a handful of companies in India, three of which are based in Bengaluru. There is a considerable potential for expanding trade in the areas of automotive components, automobiles, engineering products, IT, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and healthcare sectors,” he said.

On Indian companies investing in Indonesia, he said his country welcomed greater investments. “The anual trade expo in Jakarta in October last year saw 115 Indian businessmen participate and the highest investment of close to 5 million USD came from India. We are happy about this and look forward to more investments,” Mr. Siringoringo added.

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