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Lake Toba, Lombok becoming more popular among Chinese tourists
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Lake Toba as seen from the surrounding hills. (Shutterstock/File)
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ake Toba in North Sumatra and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara have become more attractive among Chinese tourists as alternative tourist destinations following the increase in volcanic activity at Bali's Mount Agung.
"Besides Lake Toba and Lombok, [these Chinese tourists] are also interested in tourism packages to Raja Ampat," said Chandra Hasan, the Indonesian consulate general for tourism, in Shanghai, China, as quoted by Antara news agency on Monday.
In addition to daily direct flights to Bali from China, Chandra said many airlines also offered similar services from Shanghai to Manado in North Sulawesi and Bintan in Riau Islands.
"Although the number of tourist visits to Bali this Christmas and New Year 2018 may decrease because of the Mt. Agung eruption, I'm optimistic the situation will return to normal during next year's Imlek," he said, adding that the highest wave of tourist visits from China usually happened during Chinese New Year, called Imlek in Indonesia.
Read also: Singaporean tourists flocked to Lake Toba
Shanghai is said to contribute the largest number of Chinese visitors to Indonesia.
Tourism packages to Indonesia can easily be found on the country's biggest e-commerce sites, such as CTrip.
Between 2014 and 2019, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has set a target of attracting 20 million foreign tourists, of which half are expected to come from China.
In 2016, the number of Chinese visitors to Indonesia reached 1.5 million and this is expected to increase to 2.5 million this year.
China is said to have contributed the largest number of foreign tourists to Indonesia in the past three years, surpassing Australia, Malaysia and Japan. (kes)
