Jakarta, Nov 15 (Antara) - The Tomini Bay in the eastern region of Indonesia is the largest gulf in the country, which has the potential to provide benefit for the development of the tourism sector in three neighboring provinces.
The three provinces should therefore work hand in hand to develop the Indonesian eastern region's largest gulf in order to attract local and international tourists and help improve the local people's economy.
Vice Governor of Gorontalo Province, Idris Rahim, called for cooperation among the three provinces of Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi to develop marine tourism in the Tomini Bay area.
"The three provinces must be in synergy. We must create an integrated tourism calendar, and this should be jointly pursued by the relevant agencies to boost the tourism sector," Rahim stated at a discussion forum of marine tourism development in Tomini Bay by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (PPN/Bappenas) on Tuesday (Nov 14).
He explained that the tourism sector could not be improved and built partially. So far, the provincial governments have been introducing their tourism sector on individual and regional bases.
There have been festivals of Lake Limboto, Saronde, Boalemo, Otanaha, and so on. They have a good objective to introduce Gorontalo province. Yet, the expectation to attract foreign and domestic tourists significantly has not yet been fulfilled.
"All beaches are beautiful. What is sought by tourists is uniqueness. Therefore, there needs to be a synergy with each other to attract them," he remarked.
Many sectors, such as the condition of infrastructure, security, cleanliness, health, creative economy, culinary sector, and others, are certainly involved in tourism, he added.
He expressed hope that the discussion forum would formulate and recommend concrete steps on how to promote tourism in the Tomini Bay areas of three provinces.
"On behalf of the provincial government, we thank and appreciate the organizing of the forum. The main task of the government is on raising people's economy," Rahim explained.
The vice governor acknowledged that so far, the provincial and district/city governments in Gorontalo were highly dependent on the state budget, through the Special Allocation Fund, General Allocation Funds, and other revenues.
However, considering the current state budget condition, local governments continue to seek new breakthroughs with the aim of increasing the income of the community, one of them being the tourism sector.
Being the largest gulf in Indonesia, with an area of approximately 6 million hectares of natural and marine resources, Tomini Bay has great marine biodiversity. It has 1,031 hectares of coral reefs and a mangrove forest cover of 785.10 hectares.
Hence, marine industry is one of the sectors that could be developed by the three provinces that share borders with the largest gulf of the country.
After all, the Tomini Bay was the host of Indonesia's major internal event, the seventh Sail Indonesia in 2015. As part of the Sail Indonesia series, Sail Tomini is the seventh event after Sail Bunaken held in North Sulawesi in 2009, Sail Banda in Maluku in 2010, Sail Wakatobi-Bitong in Southeast Sulawesi and Bangka-Belitung Islands in 2011, Sail Morotai in North Maluku in 2012, Sail Komodo in East Nusa Tenggara in 2013, and Sail Raja Ampat in West Papua in 2014.
With the international event, where about 100 yachts took part, the Tomini Bay is relatively well-known internationally. The efforts from the surrounding provinces must create advantages to the bay and develop their tourism.
Marine industries that have the relevance to develop along the shoreline of Tomini Gulf after the festival are related to tourism, fisheries, transport, trade, energy and mineral resources, telecommunications, creative economy, and services.
Following the conclusion of Sail Tomini event, Central Sulawesi Province, for example, is given the impetus to develop its tourism, such as in the Parigi Moutong district. The district government would further improve its facilities and infrastructure at Kayubura beach and would transform it into a national and international Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism site.
MICE is a form of tourism wherein large groups, with the help of advance planning, are brought together for a specific purpose. Tourist attractions in Central Sulawesi include the Toli-toli beach city, Lutungan recreational Island, Sematang Island Beach, Santigi Island, Talise Beach, Tirta Bahari Beach, Bulu Masomba camping site, Patunonju Archaeological Park, and Bora old village.
Spokesman of Central Sulawesi's Lore Lindu National Park Achmad Yani expressed optimism recently that Sail Tomini 2015 would increase tourist arrivals in Central Sulawesi province. ***3***(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 15-11-2017 20:03: |
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