Indonesia's Ubud picked as UNWTO gastronomic tourism development model

Indonesia's town of Ubud in Bali Island has been picked by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as gastronomic tourism development model in a recent forum held by the international organization in the Spanish city of San Sebastian.

Indonesia is required to submit reports to address the task, an official statement said on Sunday.

The reports would eventually be exposed in next year's UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, Revita Datau Messakh, head of a team to accelerate culinary and shopping tourism at the Tourism Ministry, said the statement.

Speaking at the forum, Revita said Ubud and four other destinations - Yogyakarta, Semarang, Solo and Bandung - have been assigned by the ministry to highlight gastronomic tourism so as to give more tour alternative and experiences for foreign visitors during their visits to Indonesia.

She said Indonesia applies the triangle concept which digs philosophic aspects of food, culture and history to developing its gastronomic tourism.

"Food and history are connected by spices. History and culture are connected by storytelling, meanwhile rituals link food and culture," Revita said.

"The meat and spices represent prosperity and enhancements, meanwhile coconut milk and red chili refer to integration and a good lesson," Revita interprets the Indonesian philosophy featured in Rendang, a dish which was on CNN's list of World's Best Food in 2011.

Indonesia has myriad of traditional food recipes developed by 1,340 tribes inhabiting more than 17,000 islands across its tropical territory, she said.

"The ministry now has registered around 5,000 recipes of traditional foods from all of those tribes," she added.

The move to develop culinary tourism is set as tourism has been set as the nation's core industry.

The government aims to attract some 20 million foreign visitors and earn more than 24 billion U.S. dollars from tourism by 2019. Endit