Australia encourages Indonesian tourists

Australia is easing visa restrictions for Indonesian tourists, who at present must pay more than $100 and fill out 15 pages of forms to get a visa.

The federal government on Thursday announced it would expand online visa lodgement by 2017, after a successful trial through 15 travel agents.

It will also introduce a three-year multiple-entry visa next year.

Only 150,200 Indonesians visited Australia to holiday in 2014, from a population of 250 million only four hours away.

Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck, in Jakarta for Indonesia Australia Business Week, says there's a perception problem - Indonesians view getting an Australian visa as too difficult.

"We want to make Australia a destination of choice so we need to ... remove those irritants," he said.

Ross Taylor of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute says of the 150,000 Indonesian tourists last year, only 85,000 came to see the country; the others were visiting children who are in university.

"During the same period 2.5 million Indonesians went to Malaysia and two million went to Singapore," he told AAP.

"If we made it much easier for Indonesians to get visas, online and cheaper, the growth could be significant.

"It would also start a trend where young Australians wanting to work in the inbound tourist industry would be encouraged to learn Bahasa Indonesia, another problem area for Australia."

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, also in Jakarta, says talks will also continue on reciprocal deal for free tourist visas on arrival.

Mr Dutton has met his Indonesian counterparts while in Indonesia, but would not say whether they'd discussed refugee policy.

Operation Sovereign Borders continues to trouble Indonesia, with a foreign affairs official raising concerns it had created an asylum seeker "bottleneck" as recently as last week.

Mr Dutton said his "main focus" had been security and the economy.

Senator Colbeck says the week-long effort with more than 350 business people, four federal ministers and state ministers has laid a strong platform for the relationship to deepen.

"Actions out of the back of the conversations is going to be important, that's the ultimate demonstration of good will," he said.

The minister says Tourism Australia is ready to set up in Jakarta and feedback from discussions this week will inform a broader tourism proposal for the prime minister before March.

INDONESIAN TOURISTS TO AUSTRALIA:

* 150,200 Indonesian visited Australia in 2014

* Worth $600 million for Australia's economy