China Daily (Hong Kong)

Indonesia’s Bali picked as Asia’s most popular year-end destinatio­n

- By XINHUA in Jakarta

Indonesia’s famous tour destinatio­n, the resort island of Bali, has been picked by prominent traveling reviewer website TripAdviso­r as the most popular year-end destinatio­n for the period of Dec 1 2016 to Feb 28, 2017. The latest internatio­nal recognitio­n on Bali has made Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Arief Yahya upbeat about meeting the target for number of foreign visitors this year initially set at 12 million.

The minister said that as of October the number of foreign visitors visiting the country stood at expected figure.

“Through the go digital system, we are more optimistic in achieving the targets which have been increasing from time to time,” the minister said in a recent statement to respond TripAdviso­r’s advantageo­us pick on Bali.

The minister referred to the digital technology system applied in tourism sector launched in September, aimed at digitizing the coordinate­d activities to address government’s targets in the sector.

Indonesia has set a target to see 20 million foreign visitors by 2019, higher than 12 and 15 million ones set for this year and next year respective­ly. The 2019 target was doubled from 10 million recorded last year.

Government is now developing 10 new tour destinatio­ns across the nation, dubbed as New Bali, highly expected to par with Bali in term of attracting the tourists.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has previously pledged to improve budget allocation up to five times higher to further boost tourism sector which has been declared as the nation’s core business.

According to the data released by the tourism ministry, Bali contribute­s 40 percent of total foreign visitors visiting Indonesia.

Bali was awarded as the best tour destinatio­n in Asia and the runner up in global level by Travel+Leisure magazine in 2015.

Bali was also regarded as one of world’s best places to host triathlon sports event, according to AsiaTri.com, a renowned website covering the tourism sports events.

Bali offers diverse of tourism attraction­s comprised of adventure, underwater, tourism sports, cultural and traditiona­l events, beautiful beaches, shrines, society and cultural landmark places.

 ?? SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP ?? Surfers dressed in Santa Claus outfits teach children to surf on Kuta beach on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. The popular resort island, a pocket of Hindu culture in a country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, receives thousands of...
SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP Surfers dressed in Santa Claus outfits teach children to surf on Kuta beach on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. The popular resort island, a pocket of Hindu culture in a country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, receives thousands of...

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from China