Andrea Lopez - Mumbai
After concluding the first Indonesian Specialist programme for the Indian travel trade in Medan, Indonesia in August this year, Clavin Marketing India is all set to flag off its second edition from November 25-28, 2007, in association with Malaysian Airlines.
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Clarence Fernandes, managing director of Clavin Marketing, said, “The response generated from the first specialist programme was positive. The state-wise presentations by the various tourism boards and the buyer-seller mart gave the Indian travel trade a better perspective of what Indonesia had to offer. The programme was an overall win-win situation for everyone - the airlines, the Indian travel trade and the representative state tourism boards.” Travel agents were awarded Indonesia Specialist Programme certificates at the end of it.
While the first edition’s focus was on the travel trade of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the forthcoming programme promises to draw in participants from the rest of the country. Says Fernanades, “We are looking at a more enhanced programme with an additional 50 agents from north and south India.” The three-day programme will commence at Lake Toba and end in Medan and will coincide with the IMT-GT forum scheduled to take place at the same venue.
Source: http://www.expresstravelworld.com/
October 18th, 2007
Experts say the initiative, which was first mooted more than a decade ago, is technically possible.
von John Aglionby (Jakarta)
Indonesia recently gave the initial go-ahead for the world’s longest road and railway suspension bridge across the 30km Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra. The $10bn project is for a series of bridges carrying a six lane highway and double track railway traversing three small islands in the strait. The longest span would be about 3km, more than 50 per cent longer than the longest existing structure, the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Japan.
Heka Hartono, an official of the Artha Graha Network, the lead member of the consortium that will build the bridge, said construction would begin in 2012 if feasibility studies confirmed it was viable, with the first travellers crossing in 2025. Artha Graha is controlled by Tommy Winata, one of Indonesia’s most colourful tycoons, who has close links to the security forces.
Experts say the initiative, which was first mooted more than a decade ago, is technically possible, even though the strait lies in one of the world’s most dangerous earthquake zones.
Sumatra has been rocked by several significant tremors in the past few months and more than 230,000 people were killed when a 9.0-magnitude quake in December 2004 triggered a tsunami. There are also active volcanoes in the area, including Krakatau 40km away, which killed tens of thousands of people when it erupted in 1883.
Last year Italy cancelled the construction of a 3.3km suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina to Sicily, citing costs and fears that it would not be earthquake proof.
Mr Heka said the next two years would be spent doing studies into the economic, social, cultural, political and security aspects of the project. “If they are favourable, we would then look at the technical aspects, which will also probably take two years,” he said. “But I am confident this will be built.”
The bridge would relieve mounting pressure on Java, an island the size of England that is home to 130m people. The population of the whole of Sumatra, which is three times larger, is 47m.
The bridge would significantly cut the journey time between the islands, which takes several hours by ferry. Some 20m people crossed the strait in 2006 and the figure is forecast to double by 2020.
Paskah Suzetta, the national planning minister, said the government fully supported the project. “It will increase economic growth and so people in the two areas and beyond will enjoy significant benefits,” he said after the signing.
Scott Younger, a British civil engineer and infrastructure expert based in Indonesia, said the deciding factor would be cost “With today’s technology this sort of project is perfectly possible,” he said. “It’s just what price are you willing to pay to compensate for the earthquakes. This will have to be able to take a magnitude nine quake.”
Source: ttp://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/
October 18th, 2007
Agnes Winarti , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Mekarsari fruit park in Bogor is striving to restore its image as a recreational site, not just a place where visitors can pick and feast on fruits of their choice.
“Most people seem to think they can get fruit out of season anytime they come here. It’s not exactly right. We are a fruit conservatory, not a fruit farm,” park public relations officer Catherina W. Day told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The 264-hectare park, operated by PT Mekar Unggul Sari, includes an 80-hectare fruit conservatory with 1,400 varieties of fruit plants, a 27.5-hectare pond and a 150-hectare recreational area.
The park has mini go-karts for children, a family garden for gatherings, a deer park and a plantation laboratory.
Thirty-something couple Didi and Elsie from Bekasi, who visited Mekarsari twice this year, said the garden ambiance suited families.
“We always bring our parents and our 16-month-old son here,” Elsie said.
“The entrance fee is also affordable,” Didi said, referring to the Rp 10,000 ticket for both adults and children above two years. After the Idul Fitri holiday week, tickets for children between 2 and 6 years old will return to the normal price of Rp 9,000.
Catherina said the park, located in Bogor, has begun to attract more visitors from further away.
“Previously we only had regular visitors from nearby areas like Bogor or Cibubur, but in the last two years more visitors have come from other areas of Greater Jakarta.”
In the low season Mekarsari welcomes between 10,000 and 12,000 visitors per month, while in high season, including Idul Fitri, up to 16,000 visitors crowd the garden.
To get around Mekarsari Park, visitors can choose from several options including trams costing from Rp 10,000 to Rp 40,000 for a round trip, tuk tuk (a kind of golf buggy) and tandem bicycles costing Rp 20,000 for a 15-minute trip.
Catherina said starting this month the garden operator also offered rental bicycles for individuals. “We realized that traveling by foot around the 264-hectare parkland can be really painful.”
Mekarsari plans to build three more villas (currently there is one), to cater for visitors who wish to stay overnight at the gardens. The villas can accommodate up to five people.
Catherina said Mekarsari also offered activities including fishing, team building, biking and barbecuing.
“We aren’t just a venue, we are an events organizer.”
Despite efforts to transform its image into a recreational garden, Mekarsari still welcomes visitors to pick fruits like melons and salak (thorny palm), provided they come during the right season.
A grandmother of three, Ros, 67, on visiting Mekarsari for the first time, said, “I thought I could pick all kinds of fruit here, but I could only get melons today. I’m still happy to be here because it’s so refreshing.”
When asked whether she hoped to see the same fruits available in other stores, she said, “Definitely not. These fruits better stay here because they are Mekarsari’s speciality.”
Mekarsari opens from Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Source: The Jakarta Post
October 18th, 2007