Published on February 10, 2015
The Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Tourism are committed to work together to bolster the development of marine tourism in Indonesian waters, inparticular for yachting and sailing, reported antaranews.
“The Ministry of Tourism has the full support from the Ministry of Transportation to increase visits by international yachts through adding capacity and facilities to the present 38 existing marinas and harbors, stated Tourism. Minister Arief Yahya recently.
Yachting is a very popular sport in the world and this forms a potential market segment for yachters to sail in and across the Indonesian seas with its thousands of islands. Yachters are quality tourists in terms of their spending and length of stay.
The Transportation Minister will support with the construction of wharfs which alsoinvolves site permits, and construction and increasing of the capacity of piers.
In the past years, the Ministry of Tourism together with the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries and the private sector had determined 18 sailing lanes for yachts to sail across the Indonesia seas, visiting Indonesia’s many and widely diverse destinations, starting from Maluku and Papua in the east to Sabang on Sumatrain the west. They include the organization of rallies, and events such as the Sail Raja Ampat, Sail Tomini, the Darwin-Ambon Yacht Rally, the Sabang International Regatta that attracted participation of international yachts sailingfrom Phuket in Thailand, with a stopover at Langkawi, Malaysia, and finishing in Sabang on Sumatra.
In addition to the above plans, the Ministry is also working at simplifying sailing permits for yachts to enter Indonesian seas.
One measure on the table is an online Clearance Approval for Indonesian Territory(CAIT Online) now being discussed between the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is further planned that visas for yachters be extended from the present three months to six months.
At the moment, to obtain a sailing permit for foreign yachters takes 8 days. This isexpected to be cut to two hours only, while extensions of visa should be able to be done at any Indonesian immigration office. With these measures it is hoped that with sailing becoming more popular in the country, this will further enhance the sport in Indonesia.
In fact, yachting in Indonesia can be competitive. Parking fees in Singapore, for example, costs between Singapore Dollars 1,000 to 1,500 per month, whilst in Indonesia this costs around Sin.Dlrs 500 only.
