Indonesia to seek more direct flights from Chinese cities to Bali: minister

JAKARTA - As Indonesia is targeting more international tourists, the Southeast Asian country is planning to have more direct flights from Chinese cities to its resort island Bali.

At a news conference here on Tuesday, the country's Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno said that Indonesia has set up a target of over 250,000 tourists from China this year.

Last Sunday marked the first direct flight from China to Bali since the start of the pandemic.

The chartered flight carrying 210 Chinese tourists landed at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali from China's southern city of Shenzhen.

In 2019, about 2.07 million Chinese tourists visited the archipelago, according to Statistics Indonesia.