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eighbors Malaysia and Singapore remain the favorite destinations for Indonesian tourists, according to the latest data issued by Bank Indonesia (BI).

The data reveals that more than 60 percent of 2 million Indonesian travelers visited the two neighboring countries in the first quarter of this year.

The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agents (ASITA) Jakarta branch'€™s vice chairman, who is also CEO of Wita Tour, Rudiana, said both countries had successfully attracted Indonesians thanks to aggressive promotional campaigns conducted by the two countries'€™ tourism offices.

 '€œIn addition to aggressive promotional campaigns, their tourism boards also cooperated with a lot of agents, media and other stakeholders,'€ Rudiana told The Jakarta Post.

He said that Malaysia and Singapore offered a number of affordable packages to Indonesia'€™s growing middle class to travel to both countries. '€œMany Indonesians fly to Singapore to shop and get great discounts,'€ he said.

Unlike Singapore, shopping sales in Jakarta are still unable to lure foreign tourists.

The figure of outbound tourists is expected to grow stronger due to more routes opening from a number of cities in Indonesia to both countries.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has recently connected its new hub in Medan to Penang, using a Canadian Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft with a capacity of 96 passengers, flying twice daily.

In addition, budget carrier Mandala Airlines will add a third daily flight to its Jakarta'€“Singaporeroute by the end of June, bringing the total to six per day by both Mandala and its Singapore-based counterpart Tiger Airways. Starting from June 28, the long-time player will also operate additional flights on its Singapore'€“Denpasar route.

For foreign carriers, Malaysia-based Air Asia Berhad is set to increase its Kuala Lumpur'€“Pekanbaru, Riau service to two flights a day on Aug. 1.

On the same day, Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, will start a Singapore'€“Semarang route.

According to the recent data from the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry information center, the number of tourists from Malaysia and Singapore to Indonesia increased by more than 7 percent in the first quarter of
2013 compared to the same period last year.

The ministry recorded 306,836 travelers from Singapore during January'€“March, a rise of 7.49 percent from last year. Meanwhile, the number of tourists from Malaysia stood at 281,610, up by 8.58 percent from 2012.

According to Bank Indonesia, Indonesian tourists spent as much as US$1.7 billion in January'€“March 2013.