Indonesia and China have been making serious efforts to boost tourist arrivals between the two countries and will do more to boost cooperation in tourism and culture, an Indonesian official said Wednesday.

 

"We have been working to boost arrivals between the two countries by giving 'visa on arrival' service and increasing flights from China to Indonesia and vice versa to 16 times a week," said Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik.

 

He made the remarks after hosting a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Sun Jiazheng here.

 

According to the Indonesian government data, 200,000 Indonesian tourists traveled to China in 2006, while 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Indonesia.

 

Jero Wacik said the two governments were now in talks on the opening of direct flight between Guilin and Bali.

 

In the meeting with Sun Jiazheng, Jero proposed the exchange of cultural shows in which Indonesian dancers perform a colossal show on the Great Wall and Chinese dancers entertain at the monumental Borobudur Temple in Central Java.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2007)