JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government predicted the number of tourists from China coming into the country to increase to one million people by 2014, more than double the figure in 2010, a minister said here on Friday.

Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu said that Indonesia would boost connectivity with China, which was partly expected to help reach the target. The number of tourists from China coming into Indonesia reached 469,365 people in 2010.

"Our target is one million tourists from China by 2014. It can be reached by intensifying direct flights to China," she said at the State Palace.

In the near future, Indonesia's leading carrier Pt Garuda Indonesia aimed to open a direct flight to China's Taipei, according to Pangestu.

Indonesia has relied much on foreign tourist visits from Asia. The minister said that the weakening global economy would not have a significant impact on the country's tourism industry as the government has diversified its market to emerging Asia.

"We will see that Asia would not be significantly impacted by the global economic crisis. We will boost our promotion to penetrate the market in Asia, such as China," she said.

Last year the country's foreign tourist arrival rose to 7.65 million people from the previous year's 7.0 million people.

Indonesia's foreign tourist arrival increased by 18.93 percent to 652,700 people in January year on year, the statistic bureau announced on March 1.

The data from the statistic bureau revealed that the number of tourists coming from China reached 395,013 in 2009, 337,082 in 2008, 230,476 in 2007, 147,245 in 2006, 112,164 in 2005, 50,856 in 2004, 40,870 in 2003 and 36,658 in 2002.  

The Indonesian tourism industry has recovered from the impact of terrorism, and epidemics.