JAKARTA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Administrations in Indonesia's eastern and western regions listed a string of tourism festivals to attract more foreign visitors after the nation's success to win best exhibitor award in the Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB) in Berlin.
A provincial official at Indonesia's eastern province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) said Friday that the outcome from ITB, the world's largest travel trade fair, brings lucrative business to the province's tourism sector as it booked significant tour package sales.
"We booked almost 50 percent tour package sales growth in 2017 ITB compared to last year in the same event. Besides that, there will be 20 cruise ships coming to Lombok. This is an exciting outcome for the province's tourism," head of NTB provincial tourism office Lalu Fauzal said, referring to the province's award-winning destination.
The province took part in 2017 ITB along with other Indonesian provinces of Bali, Jakarta, Jogjakarta and South Sumatra.
Lombok won three of 12 awards that Indonesia secured in 2016 World Halal Tourism Award (WHTA), continuing its success to get world's best halal tourism destination and best halal honeymoon destination awards a year earlier.
Lalu said a list of tourism events have been prepared each month throughout this year to make foreign visitors able to explore the best of attractions during their stay in Lombok.
Among those events were Wonders of Lawata, Tambora volcano, Lombok Sumbawa Pearl, Pesona Mentaram, Mandalika Tour D'Lombok, Gili Indah festivals and Rinjani golf tournament.
In western part of the nation, Indonesia's neighboring province to Singapore, Riau, launched recently 57 tourism events which would be held in its cities and regencies throughout this year.
"There will be three major events among those 57 events, comprised of Bono Festival in March, Tongkang Burning in June and Pacu Jalur Festival in August. The Tourism Ministry would fully support the promotion related to the year-long events," Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in his remarks in the launching event recently.
The minister was optimistic that Riau's tourism festivals would attract visitors from Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand as people in those regions have strong bond to Malay culture.
Indonesia is making serious effort to attract foreign visitors as it has reset tourism as its core business.
