Archive for April, 2008
Jakarta, April 23 (ANTARA)- Many foreign tourists have arrived in Mentawai Island district in West Sumatra province in their preparation to enjoy surfing in the offshore district waters which was frequently selected as host for World Champions Surfing Series event.
The tourists, among others coming from United States, Australia, Britain and Austria, arrived at the island by ferry or hiring boats after landing at Minangkabau International Airport (BIM) in Padang Pariaman district.
Martin Daly, head of world surfing agent, Indies Trader Marine Adventures from Australia said in Padang, capital of West Sumatra recently that ocean waves in Mentawai waters have the most consistent movements among the well known surfing locations in the world.
There are about 400 spot surfing with almost six-meter high of the ocean waves which can be used by the surfers, Zulkarlin, head of Mentawai Island district tourist office told Antara.
“The flow of tourist visits to Mentawai always increases annually and in 2007, the amount reaches about 12 thousand people for surfing,” Zulkarlin said, adding that the local government had established six resorts including Makaroni in Silabu Island, Kandui in Nyang Nyang Island, Saraina Koat Mentawai in Pulau Karang Majang, Alloyta in Simakakang Island, and Surfing Ground di Katiet in a bid to make the tourists feel comfortable.
According to Zulkarlin, 60 percent of about 12,000 surfers were Australian citizens, 39 percent from the U.S. Brazil, Europe, Asia, and one percent is Indonesian surfers.
“We are waiting for investors to set up more resorts in Mentawai and will facilitate them to get licenses,” Zufkarlin said.
In the meantime, Martin who has been promoting Mentawai’s sea waves in the world market since 1990, now operating four mini cruise-ships to carry the tourists.
He stated that surfing package price to Mentawai reaches US$2,500 or about 22.5 million rupiah per person for a visit of 20 day-stay. The income from tourism sector constitutes 95 percent of the provincial income, Zulkarlin pointed out.
At present some 46 mini cruise-ships have been made available to help transporting tourists in the Mentawai waters.
Target of tourist visit
In 2008, West Sumatra provincial government set a target of tourist arrivals as many as 131,123 people, with length of stay 4.08 days and daily expenditure amounting US$150 of each person.
“The province is optimistic to reach the target with the support of tourist object diversification,” Head of the West Sumatra Tourism, Arts and Culture Office, H James Hellyward, said recently.
West Sumatra as one of tourist resorts in Indonesia has been set as a center of tourist development for western part of Indonesia with series of its tourist resorts.
Several panoramas which are highly attractive to tourists among others Ngarai Sianok in Bukit Tinggi, Lake (Danau) Maninjau, Danau Diatas, Danau Dibawah, Danau Singkarak, Lembah Anai water fall, Ambun Pagi, Carolina Beach, Bungus Beach, Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (National Park) and Singgalang volcano.
Cultural attractions among others Pagaruyung Kingdom palace in Batusangkar, which is now undergoing renovation, he said, bringing optimism that West Sumatra will likely reach target of the tourist arrivals due to its cooperation with international events in Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, India and Japan.
Apart from that another tourism event which will be held in Padang starting from May 30 to June 1, 2008 and tourism promotion through a forum dubbed “Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT)” would also attract more tourists to the region, James said.
According to him, low flight route tariff from Padang to Malaysia and Singapore will also lure many tourists to visit the province.
Padang Immigration office recorded tourists arrivals in 2007 reaching 113,822 people, with a length of stay 4.02 days and daily spending US$130.
As may as 23,213 tourists coming from Malaysia, 1,481 from Singapore, 941 from several countries like US, Britain, the Netherland, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, and 37-400 people from Kanada.
West Sumatra has at least seven districts/cities with beaches where tourists can do surfing and diving, for instance, in Pesisir Selatan district, H James Hellyward, said at the Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) which took place in Singapore from April 18 to 20 April.
In addition, Hellyward said West Sumatra has places where tourists can see something more unique, namely the turtle breeding process.
The provincial tourism office would involve local fishermen in its effort to develop its turtle breeding areas as tourist objects as it is they who know precisely when the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, James said, noting that the most interesting period is during a full moon.
It is expected that the turtles way of laying eggs could lure more foreign tourists to visit West Sumatra which also popularly called Minangkabau.
Source: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/
April 25th, 2008
JAKARTA, April 24 (Xinhua) — Mount Child of Krakatau in Sunda Straits, which is close to the densely populated Java Island of Indonesia, has erupted, spewing red-hot rocks from its southern crater, head of observers at the monitoring post Antonius Sigit said on Thursday.
The status of the volcano had been stepped up to the third-highest alert since Monday as the mount had increased its activity,said the observer at the post, which lies in westernmost of Java Island and about 26 miles from the mountain.
The spewing of smokes had reached an altitude of 500 meters, which could be seen from the nearest coast of Anyer in Banten province, he said.
Thundering sounds and tremors had frequently occurred, said Sigit.
”Child of Krakatau exploded Wednesday night following some minor explosions since Monday,” he told Xinhua from the post in Serang of the Banten province.
Sigit said that the southern crater was newly formed, as the lava did not exit from another crater during the last eruption in October last year.
Child of Krakatau is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in thePacific “Ring of Fire,” and scientists warned people to stay out of a 1.9 miles zone around the mountain.
Child of Krakatau had been gradually formed after the legendary eruption in 1883, triggering tsunamis and killing at least 36,000 people.
Mount Krakatau is part of the 129 active volcanoes in the sprawling archipelago country, Indonesia. Sixty-six of them are located in high-density population areas, Java and Sumatra islands, according to the volcanology agency.
Indonesia lies in a vulnerable zone, “the Pacific Ring of Fire” where two continental plates meets, stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, causing frequent volcanic movements.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/
April 25th, 2008
JAKARTA, April 22 (Xinhua) — The 14th leg of the global Olympic flame journey was concluded without major disruptions in Jakarta at 15:50 local time (08:50 GMT) Tuesday as scheduled.
State Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Adhyaksa Dault, accompanied by Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik, National Olympic Committee President Rita Subowo and Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Lan Lijun kindled the Olympic cauldron with the sacred Olympic flame at the western section of the Bung Karno Sports Complex to mark the culmination of the Jakarta event.
Rita Subowo said: “The Olympic torch is here for the first time in our city of Jakarta. We are very proud to be part of this unique celebration. As from today, or city will forever be a part of the history of the Olympic Games.
”The Beijing Games will be a great celebration. They will not only be a moment of sporting excellence, but also moment for the peoples of China and the world to learn and discover each others’ culture, to exchange and share the strength and power of the Olympic values,” she said.
Thousands of people, including many high school students and Chinese expatriates, have joined the parade on the streets heading to and inside the venue with high enthusiasm, chanting supports for the Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Nearby high-rise buildings spread large banners that read: “Indonesia Supports the Beijing Olympic Games.”
High security profile was in place to prevent major disruptions, with some 2,500 security personnel deployed to safeguard the historical event for Indonesia.
Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG), said: “Today the Olympic flame has arrived at Jakarta for the first time in history, and Jakarta has showcased itself to the rest of the world. We are deeply impressed by the city’s kindness, by the organizers’ excellent arrangement.”
”Allow me to extend, on behalf of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games, our sincere thank and best regard to the Indonesian government, the provincial government of Jakarta, the National Olympic Committee of Indonesia and the Indonesian people.”
The whole ceremony lasted about two hours, opened with Indonesian traditional dancing and music performances.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/
April 24th, 2008
Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesian authorities on Tuesday raised the alert status for the offspring of the Krakatoa volcano in the Strait of Sunda, and Mount Ibu in eastern province of North Maluku, after both showed increased activity.
Anak Krakatau, or the “Child of Krakatoa,” in the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra, and Ibu on the Halmahera island of the North Maluku province, have began spewing ash and sending out volcanic tremors in recent days. Volcanology experts raised the alert status to level two.
No evacuation order was given, but volcanologists appealed the villagers living nearby Ibu volcano to wear face-masks to protect against ash.
The directorate general of volcanology said in its website that people had been ordered to stay outside a radius of two kilometres from the volcanoes’ craters.
Anak Krakatau’s latest big eruption in June 1994 killed one US tourist and injured three Britons and two Indonesians.
Krakatoa exploded in August 1883 in one of the world’s greatest recorded eruptions. The sound of the blast was heard as far as Australia, about 3,500 kilometres away. The volcano generated a 36-metre tidal wave that crashed onto nearby islands and killed an estimated 36,000 people.
The 1,340-metre Mount Ibu volcano, about 2,700 kilometres north-east of Jakarta, had a small explosive eruption in 1911. No human casualties were reported.
Indonesia has the highest density of volcanoes in the world, with about 500 along the 4,800-kilometre archipelago. Nearly 130 are active and 65 are listed as dangerous.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/
April 23rd, 2008
By Y. Sulaiman, eTN Asia | Apr 21, 2008
A company, backed by Malaysian-owned leisure and gambling conglomerate Genting, has unveiled an 8-year plan to turn Indonesia’s Bintan island into an exclusive integrated tourism zone.
The company’s masterplan is to turn the island into a destination for medical tourism, and a base for hosting its multimedia and information technology (IT) based games and entertainment gaming center. It has not confirmed if the ‘center’ refers to running an off-shore internet-based gaming complex.
The proposed Treasure Bay project, covering a total area of 342ha in
the Lagoi area of the island. An area of five integrated resort lots
of about 25ha each will make up the exclusive integrated tourism zone on Bintan island.
To be developed over a period of eight years, the developer will build 745 luxury villa sites with boat berthing facilities, 1,700 marinas and a hillside condominiums at a cost of US$1.5 billion.
In addition to a proposed casino for the general public, there will be a six-star hotel, shops and a wellness center.
However, an Indonesian official in charge of planning on the island
has cast fresh doubts if plans for a casino and gaming complex will be included as part of the approval package. “It was rejected a long
time ago.Indonesia has tough anti-gambling laws.”
The largest island in the Riau archipelago, an hour’s boat ride south of Singapore island, Bintan will become Indonesia’s ‘pleasure island’ to compete directly with another of Genting’s leisure development projects, the integrated resort-cum casino project on Sentosa island in Singapore.
Source: http://travelvideo.tv/news
April 22nd, 2008
JAKARTA, April 20 (Xinhua) — Indonesia is proud to be a part of the global Olympic torch relay for the first time and will do its utmost to prevent some irresponsible groups from stealing the show at the historical event in Jakarta on April 22.
”This is our first time to host the Olympic Torch relay and we are very proud of it,” said the event organizer Sumohadi Marsis in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Being honored with the opportunity to host the torch relay which is also good news to the government’s Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program, he said.
The 64-year-old said he was confident that the Beijing Olympic would run peacefully and successfully.
”May China also become the overall winner,” he said.
The National Police have promised a maximum security arrangement, including escort by the anti-terror squad, because “this event is very important for us,” he said.
Police will deploy at least 1,290 officers to the venue at the Senayan Sports Complex in Central Jakarta for anticipated rallies and any other attempts to steal the show, said Marsis, also a spokesman for the Indonesian National Sports Council (KONI).
”We have to separate sports from politics, because sports are the reflection of peace and fair play,” said Marsis, who spent 35 years as respected sports writer in the country’s largest newspaper Kompas and biggest sports tabloid Bola.
The organizers have prepared 80 torch bearers from big names in sports to top government officials to famous actresses.
Among them are Susi Susanti and husband Alan Budikusumah, the gold medalists when badminton first became a medal event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic, top shuttler Taufik Hidayat, who is expected to defend his gold medal in the Athens Olympic, World Boxing Association (WBA) champion Chris John and the 1985 International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Ellyas Pical.
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo is also selected to become the runner carrying the torch. He will be accompanied by State Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Adhyaksa Dault and Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik.
Former soccer player Tan Liong Houe is tipped to become the first runner, and the oldest as well at 76.
The route spans between 8 and 9 kilometers and each torchbearer will run for 100 meters before handing it over to the next.
”The presence of the two ministers speaks volume about how we value the opportunity to host the torch relay,” said Marsis.
Asked about his country’s chance, he smiled and replied: “we will be happy with one gold medal.”
Indonesia continues to rely heavily on badminton, its only gold source since Barcelona.
”But the performance of the Indonesian badminton has been mediocre lately,” he said.
The country’s first ever Olympic medal was a silver from archery in the 1988 Seoul Games and another non-badminton medal was a bronze from women’s weightlifting in Athens.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english
April 21st, 2008
A group of tourism and travel industry associations will team up to hold what will be the country’s largest tourism and travel exhibition.
The exhibition, called the Indonesia Tourism and Travel Fair 2008, is expected to attract 10,000 local visitors and 150 foreign buyers. It is projected to secure a total of US$10 million in business transactions.
“The Indonesia Tourism and Travel Fair will be a place where industry players can showcase the rich variety of marketable tourism and culture sources,” Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said at the unveiling of the plan in Jakarta on Thursday.
Wacik said the fair would be supported by 300 participants and would exhibit a wide range of options for thematic holiday destinations, restaurants, accommodation, transport, investment, museums and many others.
The industry associations participating in the fair are the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, the Indonesian Tour and Travel Agents Association, the Indonesia Congress and Convention Association and the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association.
The fair, which will be held between Sept. 11 and 14, has the support of all tourism and travel authorities in the central and regional governments, as well as that of state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia Airways.
According to Wacik, the government is expecting to attract seven million foreign visitors this year, worth a total of $6.7 billion in foreign exchange.
“We are very optimistic about increasing the number of arrivals by 27 percent to seven million this year, from five and a half million last year, who brought in $4.45 billion,” he said.
The government said it would support the Indonesian tourism industry by holding promotional activities abroad, allowing more foreign airlines to land directly in Bali, issuing “visas on arrival” and preparing tourist destinations.
“In the travel and tourism industry, the private sector knows best which potential markets to target, while the government acts as the facilitator to support its growth,” he said, adding that good cooperation between players in the industry is essential.
The 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum ranks Indonesia as 80th out of 130 countries and urges the country to develop its tourism infrastructure to attract more international tourists. (rff)
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 21st, 2008
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Two-way trade between Indonesia and Poland is expected to double to US$1 billion this year as a result of Indonesian trade and tourism expo 2008 to be held in Warsaw next month, Polish Ambassador to Indonesia Tomasz Lukaszuk said.
“I think businessmen from the two countries will benefit from the expo to be held in May 2008 and that the value of trade between the two countries this year will double from last year,” he told the Forum of Ambassadors Talking to Indonesian Editors and Business Executives here Wednesday.
Organized by the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ), the forum was moderated by CAJ Director Bob Iskandar and attended by PWI executive board members Djafar Assegaff and M. Saiful Hadi and James Pardede of the Communication and Information Ministry.
Lukaszuk said the two-way trade reached an estimated US$500 million last year.
Indonesia`s exports to Poland included garments, electronics, tea, coffee, tobacco and furniture while its imports from the European country covered machineries, chemicals and butter.
Contacts between the two countries` business people were a must and therefore, the Indonesian Embassy in Warsaw and the Polish Embassy in Jakarta would always encourage them to increase their cooperation through business contacts like exhibition, he said.
“The businessmen must first meet with each other through various business forums such as exhibition. After that, they can follow up the meetings through correspondence,” he added.
Hundreds of Polish businessmen came to Indonesia on their own or as part of government trade missions in 2007 among others to take part in business forums. Likewise, Indonesian businessmen also visited Poland last year for the same purposes, he said.
Relations between Indonesia and Poland have been going on for the past 50 years now. The two nations have many things in common including the colour of their flags, red and white.
The two heads of state/government and top officials paid official visits to each other`s countries. The visits were aimed at enhancing relations in the fields of economy, trade, diplomacy, defense, education and culture. (*)
Source: ANTARA News
April 18th, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Borneo’s mysterious pygmy elephants may be the descendants of Javan elephants accidentally saved from extinction by a local sultan several centuries ago, the conservation group WWF said on Thursday.
Pygmy elephants, so called because they are smaller and less aggressive than mainland Asian elephants, number perhaps 1,000 today and live in lowland forests in Borneo that are shrinking under the threat from timber, rubber and palm oil plantations.
With their larger ears, more rotund features and longer tails, the animals differ from other Asian elephants and scientists have long questioned why they never spread to other parts of the island, the WWF said.
New research published on Thursday supports a long-held local belief that the elephants were brought to Borneo centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu and abandoned in the jungle, it added.
“If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed,” Christy Williams, of the WWF’s Asian elephant and rhino program, said in a statement.
The Sulu elephants are thought to have originated in Java, where elephants became extinct some time in the period after Europeans arrived in South-East Asia, the WWF said.
“Elephants were shipped from place to place across Asia many hundreds of years ago, usually as gifts between rulers,” the statement quoted Malaysian forester Shim Phyau Soon as saying.
“It’s exciting to consider that the forest-dwelling Borneo elephants may be the last vestiges of a subspecies that went extinct on its native Java island, in Indonesia, centuries ago.”
The sultan sent the elephants to Borneo, where they now live more than 1,200 km (746 miles) north of Java, either as a regional show of power or to rid his domain of animals that threatened to be a nuisance, the paper published in the Sarawak Museum Journal says.
The research shows there is no archaeological evidence of a long-term elephant presence on Borneo, the WWF said. (See website here)
The WWF said DNA tests in 2003 had ruled out the possibility the Borneo elephants were from Sumatra or mainland Asia, home of the other Asian subspecies, leaving either Borneo or Java as the most probable source.
“Just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years,” said Junaidi Payne, one of the researchers.
“And that may be what happened in practice here.”
(Reporting by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/
April 18th, 2008
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia: The Borneo pygmy elephant may not be native to Borneo after all. Instead, the population could be the last survivors of the Javan elephant race – accidentally saved from extinction by the Sultan of Sulu centuries ago, a new publication suggests.
The origins of the pygmy elephants, found in a range extending from the north-east of the island into the Heart of Borneo, have long been shrouded in mystery. Their looks and behaviour differ from other Asian elephants and scientists have questioned why they never dispersed to other parts of the island.
But a new paper published today supports a long-held local belief that the elephants were brought to Borneo centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu, now in the Philippines, and later abandoned in the jungle. The Sulu elephants, in turn, are thought to have originated in Java.
Javan elephants became extinct some time in the period after Europeans arrived in South-East Asia. Elephants on Sulu, never considered native to the island, were hunted out in the 1800s.
“Elephants were shipped from place to place across Asia many hundreds of years ago, usually as gifts between rulers,” said Mr Shim Phyau Soon, a retired Malaysian forester whose ideas on the origins of the elephants partly inspired the current research. “It’s exciting to consider that the forest-dwelling Borneo elephants may be the last vestiges of a subspecies that went extinct on its native Java Island, in Indonesia, centuries ago.”
If the Borneo pygmy elephants are in fact elephants from Java, an island more than 1,200 km (800 miles) south of their current range, it could be the first known elephant translocation in history that has survived to modern times, providing scientists with critical data from a centuries-long experiment.
Scientists solved part of the mystery in 2003, when DNA testing by Columbia University and WWF ruled out the possibility that the Borneo elephants were from Sumatra or mainland Asia, where the other Asian subspecies are found, leaving either Borneo or Java as the most probable source.
The new paper, “Origins of the Elephants Elephas Maximus L. of Borneo,” published in this month’s Sarawak Museum Journal shows that there is no archaeological evidence of a long-term elephant presence on Borneo.
“Just one fertile female and one fertile male elephant, if left undisturbed in enough good habitat, could in theory end up as a population of 2,000 elephants within less than 300 years,” said Junaidi Payne of WWF, one of the paper’s co-authors. “And that may be what happened in practice here.”
There are perhaps just 1,000 of the elephants in the wild, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah. WWF satellite tracking has shown they prefer the same lowland habitat that is being increasingly cleared for timber rubber and palm oil plantations. Their possible origins in Java make them even more a conservation priority.
“If they came from Java, this fascinating story demonstrates the value of efforts to save even small populations of certain species, often thought to be doomed,” said Dr Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF’s Asian elephant and rhino programme. “It gives us the courage to propose such undertakings with the small remaining populations of critically endangered Sumatran rhinos and Javan rhinos, by translocating a few to better habitats to increase their numbers. It has worked for Africa’s southern white rhinos and Indian rhinos, and now we have seen it may have worked for the Javan elephant, too.”
For contacts and more information, see media release
Source: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/
April 17th, 2008
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