0 Bali urged to set up tourism promotion board

The tourist industry has strongly urged the provincial administration to establish a promotion board to optimize the island’s efforts to widely promote its tourist activities. Nyoman Kandia, a staffer at the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board (BPPI), regretted that until present, Bali, Indonesia’s tourism locomotive, had not even thought about setting up its tourism promotion board (BPPD). Kandia said that the establishment of both BPPI and BPPD was in line with Law No. 10/2009 on tourism. 

Members of the boards would consist of people in the tourist industry, academics and representatives from government institutions. The operation of the boards would be supported from the state and provincial budgets, said Kandia. “Despite its fame as a world tourist destination, Bali must continue improving its facilities, tourism packages and, more importantly, organize various innovative and creative promotional activities, especially at international tourism events,” added Kandia. 

So far, he said, Bali’s promotions were done separately by the provincial and regional administrations and the island’s tourist industry. “Promotions are the backbone of a tourist industry. Bali, with its economy depending mostly on tourism, must be more active,” he maintained. The establishment of BPPD would allow all parties to run integrated, sustainable and creative promotional programs for Bali. Other provinces, like West Java and Banten, have already established their tourism boards. 

“It is regrettable that many promotional programs led by the Bali administration do not involve people in the industry,” he stated. Tjok Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI)’s Bali chapter, shared similar sentiments. Sukawati, known as Cok Ace, had once thought about establishing a tourism promotion board in Gianyar regency, where he was the regent. But he later considered it would be best to set up a tourism board at the provincial level. 

“The capabilities of each regency are different. It would be good for us to have a provincial level promotion board as a strong umbrella for any tourism promotion for all the regencies in Bali,” explained Cok Ace. IB Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI)’s Bali branch, commented that the association had asked Governor Made Mangku Pastika to set up the promotion board since March 2011. 

“We were quite disappointed that the governor did not respond to our proposal,” claimed Wijaya. In his frequent encounters with the governor, Wijaya said that Pastika always argued that the provincial administration had been focusing on the agricultural sector, poverty eradication and education as the island’s top priorities under his office term. Putu Budiasa, head of the Denpasar tourism office, said that Denpasar mayoralty had not allocated funding for overseas promotions. 

Every year, the mayoralty only allocates Rp 800 million (US$82,500) to manage its tourism websites, the printing of CDs, tourism brochures and domestic tourism promotions. “Denpasar will certainly support the establishment of BPPD,” Budiasa said. Earlier reports said that the provincial administration had slashed its tourism promotion budget to only Rp 1.1 billion for the 2013 fiscal year, as compared to Rp 2.3 billion in the previous year.

source : bali daily