Jakarta, April 13 (Antara) - Bali Province's Tourism Service wants hotels in the tourist resort island to collaborate with tourism villages to offer hotel-village tourism packages wherein visitors can stay and spend the night at the houses of local residents.
"I have a dream that hotels will treat the villagers as 'adopted sons,' so that the houses of the residents could also serve as places for tourists to stay. This is a step to empower the village communities," Anak Agung Yuniartha Putra, head of Bali Province's Tourism Service, stated here on Wednesday.
Yuniartha explained that before the tourists were allowed to stay at the houses in the tourism villages, the hotels should spread awareness among the local residents or occupants of the houses regarding hygiene and other service standards, so that no complaints are raised by the guests.
"With regard to human resources, we are ready to provide guidance and training," the Bali tourism service chief noted.
Yuniartha believes that by implementing the plan, the people would no longer need to build homestays or a special place for visiting tourists and merely making modifications to their existing houses would meet the demand.
He cited the example of Penglipuran Village in Bangli District. In the tourism village, the local people had readied several rooms, which could be used by the visiting tourists to spend the night. The Penglipuran village had won the best achievement award as a tourism village at the national level.
"After all, rooms in the village of Penglipuran do not need air-conditioning as the air there is already cool and fresh," he pointed out.
The Bali tourism official stated that if the residents build homestays, they would be of no use when there were no visiting tourists.
Antara News Agency correspondent Ni Luh Rhismawati reported from Bali on Wednesday that the regional government of Bali was again developing 11 tourism villages in eight districts.
The development of the tourism villages is part of the local government's efforts to empower villagers and improve their welfare.
"By being transformed into tourism villages, they will at least be able to boost the local economy and reduce the rate of urbanization and poverty," he affirmed.
According to Yuniartha, the Bali government had set a target to develop at least 100 tourism villages by the end of 2018. From 2013 to 2015, the local government had given assistance to transform 42 villages into tourism villages.
The tourism villages that were built obtained not only budget assistance but also guidance regarding the Seven Enchantment (Sapta Pesona) tourism program and the potential areas that could be developed based on their local strengths, Yuniartha pointed out.
The tourist resort island of Bali Province is a major contributor to the country's tourist arrivals. In 2015, the number of tourists arrivals in Indonesia was some 10 million of which four million arrived in Bali.
This year, Indonesia is targeting to receive 12 million foreign tourists, most of which will likely visit Bali.
After Bali Province received 4.002 million foreign tourists in 2015, its tourism service has now set a target to attract 4.4 million foreign tourists in 2016.
Based data at the tourism service, tourists from Australia occupied the first rank on the list of foreign tourists visiting Bali in 2015 with 965,330 arrivals.
They were followed in the second rank by 687.633 arrivals from China, 228,035 from Japan, 190,317 from Malaysia and 167,527 from Britain.
However, China's tourists are expected to take over the first position replacing those coming from Australia this year.
According to tourism observer Dewa Nyoman, Chinese tourists actually have now taken over the domination of Australian tourists who so far top the list of foreign tourist arrivals in the Indonesian tourist resort Island of Bali.
"I have predicted that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali will increase after the government provides them with a visa-free facility and the opening of smooth direct flights to China," Tourism observer Dewa Nyoman said Bali on March 20.
This condition has been observed since in the past several months. Moreover, the economic conditions in Australia are not conducive of late, he said.
In the meantime, he said, the Chinese economy is relatively encouraging now.
Moreover, Indonesian flag carrier Garuda has also expended its flight routes linking Denpasar with Shanghai after it has previously opened a flight route that connected Denpasar with Beijing and Guangzhu in 2015.
It seems that Garuda Indonesia is focusing on its flight expansion in China as the countrys foreign tourists which conduct overseas trips are large reaching some 100 million.
He said that based on the records of Balis Tourism Service, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Bali increased by 30 percent in the first months of 2016, topping the foreign tourist arrivals list.
In the January-February period, a total of 189,594 Chinese tourists arrived in Bali, up from 145,747 in the same period in 2015.
In January - February 2015, the number of Chinese visitors in Indonesia was still recorded in the second position.
The Australian tourists holidaying on the island of Bali in the January - February period this year declined by 0.96 percent to 154,892 people. In the same period in 2015, the number of Australian visitors were recorded at 156,395.
Japanese tourists occupied the third place with 39,371 visitors recorded last January and February, down 2.89 percent from 40,544 in the same period last year.
Duwa Putra expressed convince that this year the number of Chinese tourists will continue to increase, replacing the domination the Australian tourists. After all, the volume of flights from Australia is increasingly limited.
Besides, Garuda also services passengers with its routes covering Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai via Denpasar and Jakarta.
The numerous flights facilitate the desires of young Chinese who want to spend their honeymoon in Bali, he said.***1***(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 13-04-2016 18:25:3 |
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