Archive for September, 2008
TOKYO, Sept 22 Asia Pilse - Japanese media paid serious attention to the security and flight safety issue in Indonesia during a 3-day event to promote the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program attended by Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik here this week.
The security and flight safety issue was raised by Japanese journalists during a press conference with the minister here on Saturday.
On the occasion, the minister when answering the questions explained various matters such as flight safety, security, Japanese tourist arrival target and ticket prices of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.
The minister said Indonesia was now trying to increase flight safety and improve security so that it was now conducive for boosting Indonesia’s tourism.
“Indonesia’s domestic flights are being handled well and the Indonesian government is seriously enforcing flight safety regulations as required by the International Civil Aviation Authorities,” he said.
He said the Indonesian government was also encouraging its domestic airlines to regenerate their fleets in an effort to reduce the risk of flight accidents.
On security matters, the minister said that security in Indonesia was now better. So, he said, Japanese media reporters should not be afraid to come to Indonesia.
He invited Japanese media to come to Indonesia to see conditions in the country for themselves.
In the meantime, Garuda Senior General Manager Faik Fahmi said Garuda had obtained a number of national and international certificates such as from IATA and FAA on flight safety.
Source: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/
September 22nd, 2008
Jakarta’s governor will sign a two-year sister-city program with the mayor of Moscow, Russia, in the hopes of learning more about that city’s disaster management and heritage conservation, just to name a few common issues.
“We will sign the 2009-2010 program on Oct. 3, 2008, in Moscow,” Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said Wednesday after a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Aleksandr Ivanov.
The cooperation will span several common interests: disaster management, heritage conservation policy, tourism and education for talented athletes.
Fauzi said the administration wanted to learn Moscow’s methods for mitigating disasters — such as flooding, large-scale fires, plane crashes, earthquakes and riots — as well as how regulatory frameworks were applied in these areas.
“Moscow has many historical buildings which are excellently conserved because the city has strict regulations on their cultural and historical legacy and use.
“I would like to see whether we can put similar regulations into effect here,” Fauzi said.
Fauzi added the program would involve not only study tours but also trainings and invitations to Russian experts on disaster management and heritage conservation to teach in Jakarta.
The governor said Indonesia received 80,000 Russian tourists every year. “The growing figures show their deep interest in knowing more about Indonesian culture, especially Jakarta’s native culture, Betawi.”
“We plan to hold a special event to promote Betawi culture in Moscow in September next year in conjunction with Moscow Day festivities there.”
Education for Indonesian young athletic talents is also part of the sister-city program.
Fauzi pointed out the recently renovated Bung Karno sports stadium in Central Jakarta was modeled after Moscow’s Luzhniki sports stadium.
“I am also planning to renovate the rooms available in Bung Karno stadium,” he said.
Earlier in June Fauzi signed an agreement with the mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands to set up a sister-city program including flood mitigation.
Jakarta has several other sister cities including Bangkok in Thailand, Beijing in China, Berlin in Germany, Istanbul in Turkey, Los Angeles in the United States, Seoul in South Korea, Sydney in Australia and Tokyo in Japan. – JP/Agnes Winarti
Source: The Jakarta Post
September 19th, 2008
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Jakarta’s tourism potential has not been managed effectively due to the lack of promotion and publicity. According to the Jakarta City Tourism Office chief, Arie Budhiman, only Rp 30 billion a year has been allocated to promote tourist sites and attractions in the capital city.
The figure is far lower than that of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which are around US$ 100 million or Rp 1 trillion. “Meanwhile Jakarta’s revenue from this sector is Rp 1,5 trillion,” he said following a press conference promoting an essay competition on the topic of Jakarta tourism at the Markplus office in Jakarta yesterday.
According to Arie, Jakarta should be able to allocate Rp 500 billion or 30 percent of those revenues on tourism promotion. In fact, they are only spending 2.5 percent. “This is a minute amount,” he said. This low budget prevents the integration of sectors supporting tourism, despite Jakarta’s huge potential.
Indonesia Marketing Association chairman, Y.W Junardy shares the same view. He said that the weakness in Jakarta’s tourism is the fact that the city cannot manage its potentials effectively. He cited China as an example that is successful in managing the tourism sector. “There, even stones can become a tourist object, by properly enhancing them with stories and legends,” he said.
Arie explained that this year Jakarta has targeted 1.3 million foreign tourists, pointing out that the group that contributes the most to Jakarta’s tourism are domestic tourists. Next year the number of domestic tourist is targeted to be 16 million, while 1.6 million foreigners are expected to visit the city.
AMIRULLAH
Source: http://www.tempointeractive.com
September 19th, 2008
Andry Asmoro, Analyst
Interestingly, with the third quarter of 2008 almost out of the way we have seen some major highlights in macroeconomic indicators but only little attention in the way of the government’s national program: Visit Indonesia Year 2008.
Let’s face it, the tourism sector is simply unloved by the government who are preferring to focus on politics in the lead up to the 2009 elections. Many of us had forgotten we had such a grand program to promote our country’s unique cultures and beautiful scenery.
However, in the spirit of the national tourism, let’s recap the government’s 2008 target of attracting 7 million foreign tourists to Indonesia — which many said was completely unrealistic at the beginning of the year.
This was mainly because at the end of 2007 the total number of tourists recorded at its 11 main ports of entry was only about 4.3 million.
It was clear that the task of obtaining an additional 3 million in 2008 would be extremely difficult, not only because of lower global economic growth, but also on the back of the country’s worsening domestic infrastructure.
Surprisingly, from a global perspective (according to UNWTO World Tourism Barometer) international tourism remained relatively stable and grew around 5 percent between January and April, 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.
All sub-regions posted positive results in the first four months of the year. Growth was fastest in the Middle East, North-East and South Asia, as well as Central and South America. Thus, the global economic imbalance appeared to have had relatively little impact on tourism in general — at least thus far.
Moreover, a variety of destination countries around the globe had reported double-digit growth rates in the first three to five months of 2008, including countries in the Asia-Pacific like China, Japan, Korea, Macao (China), Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, India and Nepal.
So who were the visitors to Indonesia?
Taking a closer look at the profile of those who visited Indonesia, we learned that about 78 percent came from Asia, and 41 percent came from South East Asian (ASEAN) countries.
In fact, according to the 2007 Tourism Database, 45 percent of foreign visitors to ASEAN countries were originally from ASEAN countries.
The next biggest country/regional source of visitors to ASEAN countries were the European Union, China, Japan and Korea. In summary, Asian countries are the main sources of visitors to ASEAN countries or about 70 percent of the total.
The above figures show that the Indonesian tourism industry faces stiff competition from other ASEAN countries. The Central Statistics Agency recently announced that the total number of tourists who visited Indonesia in the first 7 months of this year had reached some 3.5 million people, an increase of 11.4 percent from a year earlier.
While this double-digit growth rate is higher than Malaysia’s 3.9 percent over the same period, their total number of tourists, at 12.9 million, was nearly four times the number who came to Indonesia. Even Vietnam, a newcomer within the tourism space, managed to attract 2.62 million tourists over the same period.
If Indonesia’s tourism industry does not receive sufficient attention from the government, Vietnam could overtake us in terms of numbers of visitors, within the next two to three years.
With intense competition from other ASEAN countries, the government of Malaysia spent almost US$80 million to promote their country. Singapore spent even more, having increased spending by $93.3 million to $316.2 million for its tourism promotion board this year.
And how much is the Government of Indonesia spending? A paltry $15 million.
In our view, spending to promote tourism has not been sufficient to win market share. There must be better coordination between Indonesian embassies overseas and local governments, to better promote Indonesia abroad and locally.
Improving Indonesia’s image is a must.
Strategies to attract more visitors must be better formulated amid rising energy and food prices, which are likely to influence tourism spending.
But specific demand shifts — determined by disposable income, travel budgets and confidence — will vary from country to country, and from region to region, depending on local economies.
Proper studies must be implemented by the Indonesian tourism board and the government in order to implement targets for numbers of visitors into the country. Without this, Indonesia will continue to miss the boat.
The writer is a researcher at Bahana Securities
Source: The Jakarta Post
September 18th, 2008
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, is scheduled to promote Visit Indonesia Year 2008 (VIY) program in the biggest travel fair in Asia held by the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) in Tokyo September 10-21, 2008.
“The minister`s arrival is much expected because many people are curious to know the Visit Indonesia Year program,” chairman of Indonesia`s tourism promotion office in Japan, Tadahiko Narita, said here Tuesday.
Narita stated that the curiousity in Japan were intense that a group of Japanese businessman in a forum named Keizai Kai were scheduling a meeting between 50 Japanese businessman with the Indonesian minister.
On Narita`s point of view, a complete and direct explanation from Indonesia`s minister of culture and tourism might push out the VIY`s popularity in Japan that the government`s target to welcome seven million of foreign tourists could come true.
Before, VIY`s promotion were unpopular in Japan. There were few tourism pratitioners in Japan knew about the program which has been launched last year.
Several big travel agents in Japan such as JTB, HIS and also Japan Airlines (JAL) didn`t know that there were tourism program from Indonesia.
Even the JAL manager of public relation, Stephen Pearlman, were checking directly to all his branch office in Japan and Indonesia just to dig out about the VIY`s program.
“I had checked it, very few people knew about it,” he said.
Narita also admitted that previously the VIY`s promotion program were stumbled due to the lack of publication materials, the absence of a complete activity and the lack of fund to promote the program. This was worsened by the misprint of Japanese language brochures that it was failed to distributed to people.
“With the minister`s coming to Japan, all of VIY`s program can be explained in more details,” she said.
The minister is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo in September 18, 2008 using Singapore Airlines. He will campaign the next day and also hold a press conference to give details about the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program.
(*)
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Source: ANTARA News
September 17th, 2008
The Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program does not fail, Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said at a hearing with House of Representatives said here Monday.
“According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in the first semester of this year, the number of foreign tourists has reached 3.4 million. If the number continues to increase, by the end of the year, there would be 6.4 million foreign tourists visiting Indonesia,” Wacik said.
The number expected to be reached by the end of the year is 600 thousand, still below the target of the ministry of 7 million.
“To successfully reach that target, we are trying to make some breakthroughs in our promotions,” said Wacik, adding that the result of a promotion is not instantly, but takes time.
Wacik giving an example said the Film Festival and Vegetarian Food Festival in Batam are good ways of promotion.
In the hearing with Commission X, the General Director of Marketing of Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program Sapta Nirwandar said Indonesia uses quite different methods of promotion.
“We don`t really rely on advertisements on television. We use a strategy we called “marketing guerilla”. We come to our main marketing target sharing about our programs,” he explained.
The Minister also said that with Indonesia`s bad experience of bombing incidents and natural disasters, the number of foreign tourists until today is proof that Indonesia still has a chance to reach its tourist targets.
“Therefore, we have remain opetimistic that we will successfully reach our target,” Wacik added.
(*)
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Source: http://www.antara.co.id
September 16th, 2008
Indonesia Tourism Report Q3 2008 - a new market research report on www.companiesandmarkets.com
Latest Tourism Arrivals Figures
Indonesia has seen a strong start to 2008 tourist arrival figures. The number of tourists visiting the archipelago during the first quarter increased by 15.68% year on year (y-o-y), to 1,405,456. This increase is very much in line with BMI’s own expectations of a 15% annual rise, so we see no reason to modify our forecasts this quarter. Bali continues to be the engine driving the wider Indonesian tourism industry, with the island welcoming some 197,700 tourists in February alone, an increase of almost 30%.
Adam Air Grounded
In a further blow for Indonesia’s embattled airline industry, the government decided in March 2008 to revoke Adam Air’s operating licence. The decision follows a spate of fatal accidents in 2007 and another incident in March 2008, when an Adam Air plane overshot the runway on Batam Island. Although no people were killed in this latest incident, it was enough to spur the government into action, especially as a recent quarterly safety evaluation carried out by the ministry found the airline had ‘violations that could put passengers’ safety at risk’. The decision means that Adam Air is now grounded until it is evaluated again in June 2008. If no improvements are found, the airline will have its air operator certificate permanently removed and the airline will be effectively closed down. The airline was already suffering from financial turmoil, with the Batam crash prompting the private consortium led by PT Bhakti Investama to offload its 50% stake in the airline. At the same time, the airline’s president, Adam Adutya Suherman, suggested to local media that the airline was no longer able to insure its fleet of aircraft, as it could not meet a deadline for payments on its insurance policies. This follows reports the airline had already defaulted on some of its lease payments for aircraft. BMI believes that the grounding of Adam Air is a welcome sign that the Indonesian authorities are now cracking down on the bad practices and lax attitudes to safety that have marred the industry in recent years. However, the closure of the airline will have a deletrious impact on capacity within the domestic industry. Adam Air had flown 6mn passengers in 2007, so the industry may not now not be able to serve so many passengers this year.
Visit Indonesia 2008 Campaign Launched
In late December 2007, the government officially launched Visit Indonesia 2008. The aims of this US$15mn domestic and international marketing campaign are to attract some 7mn foreign tourists to Indonesia and generate some US$6.4bn in foreign tourism receipts. There will also be over 100 international events and cultural festivals held around the archipelago to raise Indonesia’s international profile. The campaign marks the first time since 1991 that the government has held an international Visit Indonesia marketing campaign. The last campaign was not particularly successful, but this was carried out during a time of global economic slowdown. This year’s launch also got off to an inauspicious start when it was revealed that the tourism ministry’s English slogan ‘Celebrating 100 years of nation’s awakening’ was incorrect and had to be changed to ‘100 years of national awakening’. This gaffe forced Garuda Indonesia to repaint 10 planes that had already been tagged with the slogan. Although we welcome the launch of this tourism marketing campaign as a way of bringing tourists back to the country, BMI does not believe that the 7mn target can be reached, as this would represent a massive 27% increase y-o-y. We believe that our long-held target of 6.35mn visitors for 2008 can be reached, provided of course the security situation does not deteriorate. This would still represent strong annual growth of over 15%.
Indonesia Losing Tourism Competitiveness
The World Economic Forum recently released its second annual World Tourism Competitiveness Index. Indonesia has fallen 20 places from last year, to now be ranked at 80 out of 130 countries surveyed. The 2008 report placed particular emphasis on the issue of ‘balancing economic development and environmental stability’. The WEF’s analysis tallies very much with BMI’s own views on the country. In the WEF’s analysis, Indonesia scores highly in areas such as price competitiveness and national prioritisation of travel and tourism. However, weaknesses included underdeveloped tourism infrastructure and other issues related to
tourist safety and security.
www.companiesandmarkets.com/Summary-Market-Report/Indonesia-Tour ..
Author:
Mike King
e-mail
Web: www.companiesandmarkets.com
Phone: 01933674780
Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/
September 15th, 2008
Jane Hampson , Contributor , Darwin, Australia
How fitting that an art exhibition dwelling on memory should be the subject of an exchange between Indonesia and northern Australia.
There is a long history of trade between the North — the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, as it is called — and Indonesia. It is a history barely known to the broader Australian public, but in the north, Australia’s vast and last frontier, it is a constant point of reference.
The exchange then was between two peoples — the Yolngu inhabitants and Macassan traders who came to the Top End in search of trepang, sea cucumbers.
Evidence of their presence remains today, in the banyan trees they planted which still stand on Darwin’s streets and in Yolngu words (bapa and rupiah, for father and money just two examples) borrowed from Macassarese.
When the Australian government banned the trade in the early 1900s, the North’s links with Indonesia, once driven naturally by trade winds and tides, were relegated to memory.
Fast forward to 2005, and the advent of the Arafura Craft Exchange, a project initiated by The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and championed by the Indonesian consulate in Darwin, a program which has effectively resurrected these natural links, now in the realm of the arts and culture.
The Arafura Craft Exchange is a series of three triennial exhibitions featuring Australian and Indonesian artists.
The first in 2005 focused on fiber art. The second, on at present, focuses on ceramics and is curated by Sudjud Dartanto, an academic at the Indonesia Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta.
Titled “Trajectory of Memories, Tradition and Modernity in Ceramics” the exhibition features the work of seven artists, four from Indonesia and three from Australia.
Memory as a bridge between past and present is the central theme: It is the traces of the past remaining in a newly created whole that interest Mr. Dartanto and the artists.
The work of Sydney ceramicist Jenny Orchard, for example, references directly her childhood spent in Zimbabwe and the benign animal spirits who were believed to keep the nearby Shona village safe.
Her glazed totems incorporate elephant heads and human eyes, talons, tentacles, human skulls and roses.
Orchard literally piles one element of memory on top of another to create oddly naive and fragile fantasy figures, the tallest of which threatens to topple down and smash reality.
The figurines in Indonesian Titarubi’s installation Silent Sounds of War (2002) reference memory and childhood in a different way.
The figures — torsos only, no legs — stand in a line which extends from biggest to smallest. The installation works as a metaphor for memory as a bridge between past and present.
The figures are modeled by hand and subtly different in form and pose. Yet, placed in a line as they are, arms outstretched to create an undulating wave, the figures are imbued with a sense of uniformity.
This is a line made up of individuals which, like a Broadway chorus line, works as one. Titarubi admits the body referred to in the work is her own and the subjugation and conformity implied speaks volumes about the politics of the female body and the evolution of female self-perception.
The confluence of tradition and modernity is another theme in Dartanto’s exhibition, one particularly pertinent to Indonesia as modernization steamrolls through the archipelago, often damaging traditional ways of living.
Asmudjo Jono Irianto’s Broken Brigade takes on “the immaturity of modern society” as it pertains to Indonesia, displaying uniform figures with rocks on (or in) their heads. Irianto directly questions the notion of modernization as progress and laments the loss of traditional wisdom.
Two other artists in the group pay homage to traditional culture. Dona Prawita Arissuta with Never end 1 has assembled a collection of jars filled with ceramic sweets. These are Javanese treats remembered from her childhood and associated with traditional celebrations.
Noor Sudiyati is another artist who references Javanese culture, reinterpreting ancient fertility symbols (Peri Daun, or leaf fairy) in her rough-textured totemic figures formed from hand-collected clay.
Likewise her Yin-Yang is a reminder of the need for balance in life and reworks an ancient symbol.
“Trajectory” implies a sense of firm direction, a sense of where things are heading. Yet often in this exhibition, works are guided more by a sense of where things have been and revolve around the point where collective and individual memory meet.
Michael Doolan’s ceramic figures, teddy bears glazed in lurid pop-art colors and metallic finishes, lead us to contemplate the collision of individual and collective memory. The teddy bear may be a universally recognized symbol of childhood, yet for each person there is but one so fondly remembered.
In an entirely different manner, Harvey Ottley embraces a traditional ceramic technique used by Native American Navajo and Acomo nations.
At the peak point during kiln firing, Ottley introduces thin veins of horsehair onto the surfaces of her vases. The hairs then leave traces, in their own delicate random trajectories, across the vases’ smooth contours.
Clay is the most elemental of media. Tactile and of the very earth itself, it is shaped by hand and set by fire into forms ranging from the most brittle of china to solid brick. While the works in “Trajectory” utilize clay and involve artisanal processes, the end products confirm the notion of ceramics as art.
Dartanto has put together a subtle and thoughtful show, with works displaying both intellectual rigor and technical mastery. It is a modest-sized exhibition which punches well above its weight, incorporating multiple themes and providing an overview of contemporary ceramics practice.
As this exhibition indicates, exchanges, artistic and otherwise, are a natural trajectory for Darwin and Indonesia, and the potential outcomes of creative dialogue are full of promise.
Source: The Jakarta Post
September 15th, 2008
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has expressed optimism that the tourism industry in Indonesia will fare much better following the recent decrease in world oil prices.
“Because world oil prices are going down, the tourism industry in the country will certainly get better,” the vice president said at the opening of an Indonesia Tourism & Travel mart here on Thursday.
He said the tourism industry in Indonesia would continue to improve only if people from all walks of life and tourism operators remained cohesive in making every effort to increase the number of tourists visiting the country.
“For the first time in 30 years, our country with its abundance of natural beauty, is now safe for tourists. Therefore, our capital is already strong and although there are shortcomings , they can be overcome through cohesiveness,” Kalla said.
Therefore, he called on all parties engaged in the tourism industry to remain cohesive and cooperative in promoting the country`s tourism sector at whatever cost.
Earlier, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik reported that of seven million tourists targeted to visit Indonesia this year, 3.5 million as of July had arrived in the country.
“We still have five more months and I am optimistic that the target of 7 million tourists can be reached,” Jero Wacik said.
To reach the target, the culture and tourism minister said, Garuda flight frequency from Sydney to Indonesia had been increased.
In addition, the possibility of additional flights from Tokyo, Beijing, Tehran, and South Kora to Indonesia was being explored.
He said since July, Air Asia had started flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Makassar, South Sulawesi, and later from Kuala Lumpur to Manadao in North Sulawesi and to Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara.
“With the additional flight frequency, we are optimistic that the target of 7 million tourists visit Indonesia this year can be met,” Jero Wacik said. (*)
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Source: ANTARA News
September 12th, 2008
For years it has lived in the shadow of its more famous neighbour Bali.
Now Indonesia’s pristine Lombok Island is making a concerted effort to build itself up as the next Bali, while trying to maintain its natural charm.
Slower to catch the tourism train than its neighbour to the west, Lombok has been promoted as an “unspoiled Bali.”
But a future $600 million development may see it emerge on par with Bali as a world-class tourism destination, according to the United Arab Emirates-based developer.
Tourists visiting Lombok typically treat it as a side-trip to Bali, staying just a few days.
The Japanese and Australians, Bali’s top two groups of tourists, come to Lombok for the surfing. The Koreans come to honeymoon, and the Europeans see it more like an extension of Bali.
Expats from Jakarta come for the relaxation, explains Dominique Duvivier, the general manager of Accor’s Novotel Lombok.
But he says there’s new interest in Lombok.
The hotel struggled to survive in the aftermath of the tourism downturn that followed the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings.
Business is particularly good this year though, with the hotel running at about 53 per cent occupancy compared to just 30 per cent at this time last year.
News of a new airport and plans by UAE property developer Emaar Properties have helped generate interest in Lombok.
“I think Bali is too crowded so they need to find a plan B,” Duvivier said.
“Also this development program is bringing some new investors, some new tourists.”
The Novotel Lombok is currently the only top-end hotel in the island’s south, although there are other budget and mid-range accommodation options in the area.
Lombok’s principal beach resort of Sengiggi is situated in the western part, closer to the capital Mataram, the current airport and Lembar, the main port for ferries.
Work has started on a new $72 million international airport, close to the town of Praya and about 30 km south of the existing Salaparang airport.
Authorities believe the opening of the new airport, expected in 2010, will make Lombok a primary tourist destination, rather than just an add-on to Bali.
International travellers will be able to fly direct to Lombok. And the new airport will be able to handle 2.4 million visitors, compared to Salaparang airport’s 800,000 passenger capacity.
Tourists from the Middle East are expected to be drawn by Emaar’s planned development of a 1,175-hectare site in south Lombok.
The development will be set along a seven-kilometre natural waterfront complete with five-star resorts, luxury residences, a marina, golf course and shops.
The Bali Tourism Development Corporation signed off on the Lombok mega-tourism project in March, with master planning for the development beginning in April.
The first five-star hotels are expected to open to guests in a few years time and further development will take place over a number of years.
Emaar says its project, set on the Kuta and Tanjung beaches, will be environmentally friendly, integrating natural elements into a residential, leisure and hospitality zone.
Unveiling the project in April last year, Emaar chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar described Lombok as one of the most promising tourism destinations in Indonesia, adding it had the potential to be a magnet for world travellers.
Visit Lombok today and you’re certainly not met with a carbon copy of Bali. It’s more laid back and less touristy, even though tourism is the island’s largest source of income.
It’s sometimes described as being like Bali 20 years ago, although at least one Lombok travel company says that’s incorrect if you consider the landscapes and cultures that are uniquely Lombok.
As lombokhotelandtravel.com puts it: “As the old saying goes, ‘You can see Bali in Lombok but you can’t see Lombok in Bali’.”
The writer was a guest of Accor Hospitality and Garuda Indonesia, staying at the Novotel Lombok.
Source: http://www.southasianpost.com/
September 11th, 2008
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