Jakarta, Sept 20 (Antara) - Indonesia is organizing a sail race in the Karimata Strait involving the provinces of Jambi, Riau Islands (Kepri), Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan.
Called 'Sail Karimata,' the race has been ongoing since June and will continue until October, 2016. It is expected to attract 15,000 local and foreign tourists, and is the eighth race in the series of Sail Indonesia, which began in 2009.
The peak event of the sail race --at which the government predicts foreign tourists will spend some US$5 to 6 million (Rp66 billion), while Indonesian tourists will spend Rp10 billion (US$740,000)-- will take place in North Kayong District, West Kalimantan, on October 15.
Although the peak event will be held in West Kalimantan province, Sail Karimata will also help boost the economies of other provinces involved in the boating race, such as Bangka Belitung, Jambi and Riau Islands.
Riau Islands, or Kepri, for example, serves as the gateway for participants coming from Singapore. "Riau Island will serve as Indonesia's maritime gateway and Sail Karimata is an event that will reinforce its status as that gate. We will see Riau Islands' tourism destinations transformed from land to the maritime sector," said Guntur Sakti, the head of Riau Islands Tourism Service, on Thursday last week.
Batam, a tiny industrial city in Riau Islands Province near Singapore, will introduce tourism to yachters by inviting them to play a traditional unmanned sailboat game with a single outrigger on its beaches.
Kepri, itself, will highlight the peak of Sail Karimata on October 26-27, 2016. Batam City Tourism Service Head Yusfa Hendri said his office will also invite yachters to visit popular tourists destinations, such as the Barelang bridge.
Yachters who have arrived from Singapore will visit Batam's Nongsa Point Marine before heading to Kepri's provincial capital of Tanjungpinang on October 28-30. "There are 60 yachters arriving in Batam, with three crews on each boat," said Yusfa.
In West Kalimantan, in the meantime, Sail Karimata is expected to boost the arrivals of tourists by 40 percent.
"We hope the arrivals of tourists during the peak event will increase by 40 percent," Simplisius, the Head of West Kalimantan Tourism and Creative Economy Office, said in Pontianak, provincial capital of West Kalimtan, on Tuesday last week.
He added that the Tourism Ministry has set a target of 5,000 and 10,000 foreign and domestic tourist arrivals, respectively. The ministry's calculation shows that the sailing event could have a direct impact, in the form of income valued at Rp75 billion.
Yet the government has not given priority to the amount of income, but rather to the maritime impact of the sailing event in the future.
"The increasing number of tourists in West Kalimantan will also boost economic growth. This has been proven some time ago during the the Equatorial Carnival in West Kalimantan. Visits by tourists increased dramatically, while restaurants and hotels were fully booked, and trade activities also increased. All of this has a positive impact on the local economy," Simplisius said.
The upcoming boating race will have an impact not only on those provinces involved in it, but also on the country's tourism as a whole.
Based on the directives of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) sometime ago, and in view of the fact that this is a tourism event, the Sail Karimata 2016 should be organized to bring in economic value.
As the sail race is aimed at attracting international participants, the supporting facilities should also be of international standards. All the concerned human resources and facilities should be of international standards, such as the cultural events, curators, designers, music composers and choreographers.
The main activities include a national seminar on maritime affairs in Jambi, the Belitung Festival on October 22 and Riau Islands Maritime Festival on October 28.
The government hopes that Sail Karimata would have high economic value that could transform the maritime sector into a main contributor to the government's target of earning some US$4 billion of foreign exchange from the tourism sector by the year 2019.
Therefore, the government has so far held various sail Indonesia events as it is convinced that these events have the potential to contribute to the tourism sector.
After all, such events that have been categorized as marine tourism activities have so far contributed still only about 10 percent of the total US$1 billion worth of foreign exchange earned from the tourism sector.
Indonesia's earnings from the tourism sector are still small compared to that of Malaysia which earns about $8 billion from this sector.
"This is a challenge for us. If our projection of $4 billion in 2019 is realized, we will still stand outclassed by Malaysia," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya stated at the launch of the event in Jakarta on June 1.
The Sail Karimata is the eighth of Sail Indonesia organized for the first time in 2009.
The previous sail events were Sail Bunaken, held in North Sulawesi in 2009, Sail Banda in Maluku in 2010, Sail Wakatobi-Belitung in Southeast Sulawesi and Bangka Balitung in 2011, and Sail Morotai in North Maluku in 2012, in addition to Sail Komodo in East Nusa Tenggara in 2013, Sail Raja Ampat in West Papua in 2014, and Sail Tomini held in the provinces of Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo in 2015.***1***
(a014/INE/O001)(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 20-09-2016 14:15:4 |
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