VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The government has predicted that the number of domestic and foreign tourist trips to some tourist destinations in Indonesia during the Christmas and New Year holidays would reach up to 800 million.

The government is optimistic that the number of domestic tourist trips will reach 703 million and foreign tourist trips 5.3 million at least, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno informed.

"Hopefully, this tourist travel (figure) will exceed 800 million, and this 800 million figure means above the upper limit, or the optimistic target of 703 million travels of domestic tourists," he said at the Presidential Palace Complex here on Monday.

The government is optimistic that the target can be achieved because the number of searches for tourism activities in Indonesia has already exceeded 2.8 billion, higher than for Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Uno said that tourist trips during the Christmas holidays and ahead of the New Year have so far run smoothly, with their number reaching 44–45 million.

The government will still carry out monitoring next week to determine the tourist dynamic during the holidays.

President Joko Widodo has instructed the Transportation Minister to add flight slots to accommodate the tourists, whose number is expected to increase as the end of the year draws near.

Minister Uno said that additional flight slots would be added at some major airports, such as those in Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and Kualanamu, as well as tourist destinations.

"Meanwhile, (additional flights will be scheduled) for tourist destinations (such as) Wakatobi, Morotai and additional flights to Lake Toba and Likupang, North Sulawesi," the minister added.

The three destinations with the highest number of tourist visits are Bali, Yogyakarta, and Bandung.

The most foreign tourists were from Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. (Antaranews)