ENCOURAGED by positive growth in Indonesia arrivals in recent years, Tourism Malaysia Jakarta (TMJ) has outlined several measures to boost this segment by seven per cent in 2012. 

TMJ’s newly appointed director, Nor Azan Sulaiman, said: “TMJ enjoys a good relationship with the travel industry in Jakarta, and we would like to conduct more joint promotions with (Indonesian) travel (experts), airlines and media to introduce Malaysia’s new products to customers.”

According to Sulaiman, there were 2.1 million Indonesian visitors to Malaysia last year, contributing RM4.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) in tourism revenue. “Arrivals from Indonesia exceeded two million (pax) over each of the past three years,” he said.

Sulaiman was optimistic that this year’s arrivals figure would easily surpass TMJ’s target, as numbers from January-May 2012 had already registered a year-on-year increase of 19.3 per cent.

He noted that travel between Indonesia and Malaysia was becoming more convenient, catalysed by increased seat capacity on Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air and Mandala Airlines.

Currently, there are 507 connections with 83,434 seats per week between Malaysia and Indonesia.