DENPASAR ~

Association of Indonesian Travel Agency in Bali expected the government to improve the infrastructure and tourism accessibility to face ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

“If the infrastructure is improved then the tourism targets can be achieved,” said Chairman of ASITA Bali, Ketut Ardana in Denpasar on Wednesday.

According to him, the readiness of infrastructure and accessibility are two important factors to promote tourism especially when the government is targeting 20 million tourists in 2019.

Other tourism practitioner expected the same thing because Indonesia has a great potential to reap more foreign tourists but the opportunity is still left behind compared to other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

“If it is seen from the aspect of geology and demographic and cultural diversity and attractions, Indonesia should be able to handle more guests,” said Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) Bali Bagus Sudibya.

However, in the reality, Indonesia just able to bring no less than 10 million foreign tourists, or about 9.6 million people, about 3.5 million foreign tourists visited Bali.

The number is still lagging behind when compared to Malaysia which is able to bring in 26 million foreign tourists.

Thus, infrastructures such as roads, electricity and water are expected to be upgraded to support the needs of society, including tourism.

Air transport and visa-free policy for a number of countries are expected to provide facilities for foreign tourists to visit attractions in the country.

Meanwhile, related to human resources, Bagus Sudibya is optimist regarding the potential of the tourism human resources even though it is still lagging behind from ASEAN countries such as Thailand.

To that end, the tourism in Bali also expects that the elimination of fuel subsidies diverted to development in Indonesia can be realized.