“In Singapore, there are 15 million international tourists and five million Singaporeans. The travel duration is only 55 minutes from Silangit,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

After Singapore, the ministry is also targeting tourists from Malaysia and China, the latter is the biggest market. The number of outbound travelers can reach up to 120 million people.

Arief said that he is willing to offer incentives for airlines who come up with a new flight route from China to Silangit, “We are aiming [for it to happen] this year,” Arief added.

Competent human resources are also important in the tourism industry, Arief said that all employees should have a regional certification that fits the ASEAN MRA-TP standard.

Silangit International Airport welcomed its first international flight by Garuda Indonesia that traveled from Singapore on Oct. 28. To commemorate this occasion, both provincial and regional administrations partnered up with tourism industry players to create 10 tour packages for Singaporean tourists to travel to Lake Toba.

Dates for the trips are available from Oct. 28 until Nov. 21 and packages are divided into 3D2N (three days and two nights) priced at S$ 299 ($218), 4D3N priced at S$ 349 and 5D4N priced at S$ 489 with an additional destination to Medan.

These 10 tour packages are targeted to have around 60 people for each trip, which means that there will be around 600 international tourists coming to Lake Toba between the months of October and November.

Lake Toba is expected to welcome one million overseas tourists in 2019, and total revenue can reach up to one million dollars. (asw)

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