0 Association initiates Bali, Beyond Travel Fair

The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) has initiated the Bali and Beyond Travel Fair as a regular event to promote the island’s tourism. The association’s chairman, Ketut Ardana, said on Thursday that as an international tourist destination, Bali had yet to have its own promotional event held locally. Promotional events that have been held here in the past have only been small-scale table top meetings between travel agents. Around 10 years ago, an event called Bali Travel Fair was held, but it only took place three times, he said. 

It was a promotional event that was very important as a focus and reason to invite all stakeholders to promote the potential of the island. “Although Bali’s tourism is widely known, we still need to hold promotions. In addition to joining events abroad and in other areas in Indonesia, it is important to hold an event in Bali to promote our potential all out and to evaluate what we have achieved,” he said. “Therefore, we are initiating the Bali and Beyond Travel Fair and involving all relevant stakeholders in Bali and outside Bali. We can make use of Bali’s popularity to promote other destinations in Indonesia,” he added. 

Every area in this archipelago has its own attractions, but not all are widely known and visited by many tourists. There are many tourism stakeholders from other areas in Indonesia that promote their potential in Bali, but they usually hold separate events. “We want the travel fair to be a joint event for all stakeholders in Bali, and outside, held every year. We are still preparing the concept and discussing it with GIPI [the Indonesian Tourism Businesses Association]. We will start early next year at the latest,” Ardana said. For the event, travel agents from outside Bali and abroad will be invited, as well as national and international airlines, in the hope that they will be interested in opening new routes. 

The development of many destinations in Indonesia is still hampered by poor infrastructure. The Bali and Beyond tourism program has the potential to generate further development, but development so far has been hampered by limited facilities. Even in Bali, tourist arrivals are still concentrated in southern Bali, including Badung, Denpasar and Gianyar. The program is to use Bali as a catalyst to spur the development of tourism in other areas, like Lombok, Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi. Tourists buying holiday packages will visit Bali before exploring other areas in Indonesia. 

Al Purwa, former ASITA chairman, said that programs like Bali and Beyond had managed to attract many tourists, who visited Komodo Island, Mount Bromo, Toraja and other destinations. However, the problem was that it often took a long time to reach other destinations outside Bali. Yos WK Amerta, chairman of the Water Tourism Association, shared a similar opinion, saying that there were many areas in Indonesia with beautiful islands and underwater scenery that had yet to become popular due to a lack of promotion.

source : bali daily