Bali News

Global financial crisis has brought a negative impact in decreasing number of long haul tourists especially from Europe and North America. However in total number of tourist visit to Indonesia between January and April 2009 slightly exceeded the same period of last year by 1.53%. Stable trend of short and mid haul tourist expecially from Australia and Asian countries helped to keep the total number up.

The situation was exposed by the Secretary General of the Ministry for Culture and Tourism, Wardiyatmo, after he opened The First ASEAN Plus Three Tourism Student Summit in Sanur on Wednesday, June 17th.

Number of visiting foreign tourists between January and April 2008 was 1,864,585 whilst the same period of 2009 recorded 1,893,155 visits. However Wardiyatmo could not recall the exact figure of the decreasing visit long haul tourists. He believed that global economic crisis has affected the purchasing power of people in those market. In result they decreased their spendings, including in choosing holiday destination. The situation has forced them to chose hliday destinations in European and American continent for the sake of cost efficiency.

In response, the government planned to refocus tourism marketing efforts to young travelers summing up to 20% of total foreign tourist. Asian countries to get more attention such as South Korea, China, and Japan. “The students attending this event now will become young executives with enough money for holidays”, Wardiyatmo said.

Therefore Indonesia was keen to host the The First ASEAN Plus Three Tourism Student Summit covering ASEAN countries, Japan, China and South Korea. “We do hope that this forum can serve as a think tank forum among students in addition to building lasting understanding about diversity of culture, lifestyle, and history”, he added.

During the four days event participants would get in depth knowledge about sustainable tourism program presented by relevant experts and practitioners. From Bali, Agung Suryawan Nusantara, Head of the Center for Tourism and Cultural Research of Udayana University, presented the traditional Tri Hita Karana concept as an implementation of sistainable tourism development in Bali.