Roundup: Indonesia aims to tap more foreign visitors through year-end tourism events

Indonesia is gearing up preparations to hold various tourism events during yearend period in its prominent tour destinations, in a bid to attract more foreign visitors to comply with the tourism sector's targets this year.

The resort island of Bali has prepared its four famous destinations, namely Kuta, Sanur, Nusa Dua and Ubud, to host events celebrating Christmas and the New Year.

Head of Indonesia's tourism ministry Bali chapter Anak Agung Gede Yuniartha said that influx of foreign tourists visiting Bali related to yearend vacation has been sensed since November.

"Bali saw 400,000 foreign visitors in November, up 22 percent from last year. We expect their influx to Bali to increase considerably from Dec. 23," Yuniartha said in a statement issued recently.

He added that hotels and cafes in those four destinations and several others in different areas also have prepared events to celebrate New Year's eve with fireworks, beach festivals, musical concerts and Bali traditional events that highlight local wisdoms.

Bali contributes 40 percent to the figure of total foreign visitors visiting Indonesia. The famous resort island was recently picked as Asia's most popular yearend destination by the United States-based travel review website of TripAdvisor.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in North Sulawesi province that is famous for its marine-related tour destinations, month-long festivals will be held to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Provincial administration and tourism stakeholders organized at least 26 musical and cultural festivals throughout this month with the peak ones to be staged to end the year in the province's capital of Manado.

The province's governor, Olly Dondokambey, said that a Thailand royal princess was scheduled to spend the changing of the year event in Manado.

"Thailand ambassador to Indonesia had met me to inform the planned visit of Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana to Manado later this month," the governor said over the weekend.

The province has earned several recognitions from influential travelling media for its beautiful undersea sceneries.

The province's Bunaken marine park earned Best Marine Park title from Scuba Diving, an ultimate reference magazine for divers, in 2012.

The magazine also awarded the province's Lembeh Strait as the world's best night dive location for its distinctive undersea biotas which are not found elsewhere in the world.

Indonesia is now in herculean efforts to develop tourism sector, which has been declared as the world's core business. It has set the target of attracting 20 million foreign visitors by 2019, raising more than 24 billion U.S. Dollars.

Ten "New Bali" tour sites are now prepared across the archipelago nation in a bid to garner more foreign visitors.

The western region of Bintan island, part of the "New Bali' tour destinations, welcomed on Sunday the initial direct flight of Indonesia's airlines Citilink from cities in China.

The Citilink's direct flight from Chinese cities resulted from its MoU with China's Wanda Hubei business group last year. In the initial operation Citilink would serve 19 cities in China, which will be increased to 24 cities.

Through the direct flight service, Citilink provides three flights each day from Chinese cities to Bintan Island, which may bring in 180,000 tourists from China to Indonesia in a year.

The nation's tourism sector is now targeting 12 million foreign visitors this year, higher than 10 million ones it welcomed last year. Some 15 million ones are targeted for next year.

As of October this year the number of foreign visitors stood at 9.4 million, according to the data released by Indonesian statistics bureau. Endit