T

he Bali administration says it will soon draft a master plan on the development of the island’s tourism industry to map out strategic measures to improve the sector.

Ida Bagus Kade Subhiksu, head of the provincial tourism agency, said the master plan would include four main issues: tourism industry development, destination development, tourism marketing strategy and institutional management.

“The master plan will refer to the national master plan, which stipulates goals and long-term strategies to develop tourism at the national level,” he said on Tuesday in a discussion with the island’s tourism stakeholders.

The document has determined 50 main tourist destinations nationwide, as well as 88 “strategic destinations” and another 222 destinations that to be developed further by 2025.

Subhiksu said the master plan on Bali’s tourism would likely be implemented starting two years from now, because it would take a long time to finish.

In the discussion, he said that despite unresolved problems on traffic jams, garbage and infrastructure, Bali remained an attractive destination, which saw a rising number of tourist arrival every year.

“Bali has a great deal of strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, and it keeps developing.”

Last year, foreign tourist arrival to the island were slightly above the government’s target of 2.7 million people.

Based on the Tourism Agency’s data, the total number of foreign tourist arrivals reached 2,756,579 people last year, a rise of 10.57 percent from 2,493,058 people in 2010.

He expected that local administrations, tourism businesses and academics would be able to better collaborate.

“Bali is facing so many competitors. Each of us has to play our role to make the island remain competitive and be a winner. Tourism businesses play the key role,” he said.

Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) in Bali, said that the sub-sector with the most potential to be developed in Bali was the cultural tourism sub-sector.

“Culture has become Bali’s characteristic for tourism development. People’s ways of life here are something that attract many tourists to come here,” he said.

He added that tourists were interested to come here, although Bali was located outside what he called ‘the center of tourism’ in South East Asia, which comprises Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, thanks to the island’s unique culture.

“We should make this culture sustainable, instead of fading. Therefore, we need a comprehensive plan so that our tourism could be sustainable.”

I Made Bakta, Udayana University’s rector, who represented academics in the discussion, said that there should be a greater positive movement from local people to make tourism more sustainable.

“If we want our tourism to be sustainable, tourism has to be ‘owned’ by the local people. There should be more multiplier effects for them,” he said, adding that despite the huge amount of money circulating in the island’s tourism industry, many people in the island still lived in poverty.