Bali has been recognized by a distinguished travel magazine as the best island in the Asia-Pacific region for 2008.
The resort island has garnered 20 travel and tourism awards since 1998.
“Praise God that Bali is still charming to tourists. We have to keep it this way by improving and developing tourism spots on the island,” head of the Bali tourism agency, Gede Nurjaya, told reporters Tuesday.
In response to the award, he said the agency had planned to include new destinations along tourist routes, adding that some areas in the eastern part of the island had been considered for further development to balance those areas located in the southern and western part of the island.
He said the plan would also involve tourist agencies on the island.
“We will encourage tourist agencies to create or modify tour packages to include the new destinations,” he said.
One of the locations targeted as an eco-tourism spots is the coffee plantation area of Blantih, in West Kintamani, he said.
“We must let tourists know that Bali is full of surprising tourism ideas, including new areas that I believe will rejuvenate their perspective about the island,” he said.
The award was the second handed over by the Hong Kong-based travel magazine Destinasian. The same award was given to Bali in 2006 and was presented to the Indonesian embassy in Hong Kong.
He said the agency had also planned to retrained its human resources sector to increase the comfort level on the island, which in turn would support the island’s tourism industry.
“We will urge people to support public order, which in turn will bring benefits in the form of an increase in the number of tourists visiting the island,” he said.
Bali has seen a promising increase in the number of tourists visiting the island in the first three months of this year; in March, as many as 151,000 tourists had visited Bali, which indicated an approximate 25-percent increase from last year’s 120,000 visitors.
Around 434,000 tourists have visited the nation’s favorite tourist destination this year, with most tourists coming from Asian countries like Japan and China.
“It seems that we will easily pass the target that was set earlier this year,” Nurjaya said.
The Bali tourist agency targeted around 500,000 tourists for 2008.
The Jakarta Post
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