I

t is no secret that Indonesia has been heavily dependent on Bali for tourism, but that will soon change as the government is luring tourists to new destinations.

In promoting tourism, the government has now turned to the virgin beauty of the country’s remote islands, from the deep blue sea that houses rich marine life surrounding North Kayong in West Kalimantan, to the sights of granite beaches in Tanjung Kelayang, Bangka Belitung.

The Tourism Ministry is of the view that these places have the potential to be future tourist attractions that could help meet the government’s target of increasing foreign tourist arrivals to 20 million by 2019, which would double last year’s figure of 10 million.

For this cause, the Sail Karimata Strait event in October is expected to give tourists a taste of what these places, with addition of Jambi and Riau province, have to offer.

“We expect an increase in the number of tourists. Our foreign tourist visits stood at about 10.4 million last year, relatively small compared to the beauty and diversity of Indonesia’s marine life,” said Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, whose office covers tourism as well.

The four provinces that would host the festival would also represent major cultures, he said, from Melayu culture to Chinese culture, boosting its attractiveness.

With optimism, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya pinned hope on the event attracting 5,000 foreign tourists and 10,000 tourists, which would potentially provide the region at least Rp 75 billion (US$5.4 million) in additional revenue.

He also boasted that so far, 300 yachts had signed up to join the sailing event.

“As this is a tourism event, it has to be promoted early and it has to be a trending topic,” Arief said.

The Tourism Ministry wants to also take advantage of the country’s vast seas, by boosting the income from marine tourism from $1 billion to $4 billion by 2019, even though Arif thought it was still pale compared with the $8 billion raked in by neighboring Malaysia in the same sector.

The ministry has also pushed for quicker development of the top 10 emerging destinations chosen by the government, particularly Morotai in Maluku, where year-long festivals have been launched under the name Wonderful Morotai.

Morotai, a forested island whose villages were made up by coastal settlements, is set to welcome 5,000 tourists this year for the event, although the government hoped to attract at least 500,000 tourists to the area by 2019.

Things have looked up for the government in the tourist sector, as latest Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data revealed that there was a 7.51 percent year-on-year (yoy) increase of foreign tourist visits in the January to April period to 3.52 million visits.

Arif maintained the figure was still on track to attract 12 million foreign tourist visits this year.

“Regulation-wise, I think the visa-free policy had the biggest impact on the figure, as well as our promotion work,” he said, adding that first quarter figures had exceeded expectations with 2.5 million visits in March.

He referred to the visa-free policy for 90 countries increasing the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia. Eighty-four more countries are expected to be added to the list soon.

He acknowledged that the emerging tourism destinations had still not contributed much to the number.

Amenities remained the problem for remote areas.

North Kayong regent Hildi Hamid, where Sail Karimata Strait would be held, admitted that hotels in the regency were limited to only several small hotels and some three-star hotels.

In Morotai, publicly listed property developer Kawasan Industri Jababeka will build 1,000 new homestays to help meet the potential increase in tourist arrivals.