Eighty-three tourism students from across Southeast Asia and Japan have gathered in Bali to share their experiences at the inaugural ASEAN+3 Tourism Students' Summit.
Participants from South Korea and China, however, failed to attend the event.
The four-day summit was opened on Wednesday in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia's favorite destination for international visitors.
Culture and Tourism Ministry secretary-general Wardiyatmo said that during the summit, students would trade experiences about their countries' tourism, as well as build mutual understanding of culture, lifestyles, traditions and historical backgrounds.
"Therefore, I really hope these students enjoy their stay here, while sharing knowledge and building good networks among themselves to help develop the tourism sectors in their respective countries," he said after opening the event.
During the summit, the students will take part in a seminar on sustainable tourism development, and take trips to Nusa Dua resorts, Tanah Lot Temple and the Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural complex.
The participants will also take a tour of Bali's Tourism College.
Wardiyatmo said the event was organized by Indonesia in cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, to fully support Youth Travelers Years in 2009-2010, which was established by the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, in January.
"The program is quite relevant for Indonesia as we have a 10.24 percent youth traveler market share from around the 20 percent worldwide," he said.
According to the ministry, Indonesia has welcomed around 28,570 youth visitors (aged 18-25) from January to April this year.
In 2008, 1,864,585 young travelers visited Indonesia.
In total, Wardiyatmo went on, Indonesia was targeting 6.5 million foreign tourists in 2009.
"Last year, we had 6.4 million visitors. I guess this year's aim is attainable," he said.
Commenting on the summit, Kenji Nakamura, 24, from Hokkaido University's Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies, said the event was a great opportunity for young tourism people like himself to broaden their global networks.
"Countries in Asia, like Bali in Indonesia and Thailand, are among the favorite destinations for the Japanese. Therefore we have to learn more about the places, as well as the cultures and lifestyles," he said.
"I definitely would share my experiences of meeting new friends from various countries here with my friends back at the university."
Moe Nonaka, also from Japan, admitted he was a bit disappointed by the no-show by the tourism students from Korea and China.
"It'd be lovely to have also known them, besides all the new friends I just made here," he told The Jakarta Post.
The 83 participants at the summit include 31 Indonesian and 52 students from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
