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Lake Toba Festival kicks off amid criticism

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya officially opened Lake Toba Festival 2015 on Thursday in Berastagi, Karo regency, North Sumatra, amid criticism that the fiesta was held too far from the lake

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Karo, North Sumatra
Fri, November 20, 2015

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Lake Toba Festival kicks off amid criticism

T

ourism Minister Arief Yahya officially opened Lake Toba Festival 2015 on Thursday in Berastagi, Karo regency, North Sumatra, amid criticism that the fiesta was held too far from the lake.

Yahya said that it had been the had been the North Sumatra provincial administration that decided the host region and that the central government had just provided moral and material support for the success of the annual event.

He hoped the event would be a forum to showcase the charms of Lake Toba to tourists, considering the lake had been declared by the central government as one of the country'€™s mainstay tourist destinations.

'€œLake Toba is among the 10 national destination priorities this year,'€ he said in his remark at the opening ceremony.

Besides the location of the host region, the festival was also criticized for its lack of activities, despite the huge sum of funds allocated for the event reaching in excess of Rp 3.4 billion (US$242,857).

'€œWe are pessimistic that this event will be a success because it'€™s the first time in history that the festival has been held so far from the lake,'€ RH Siregar of Humbang Hasundutan regency administration said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony.

Siregar explained that this year'€™s host was actually Samosir regency but had later been handed to Karo because the former was not ready to host.

He questioned why Karo had been chosen as host when there were many other regions around the lake, such as Humbang Hasundutan, that were yet to the host the festival but had submitted a proposal to host.

Meanwhile, the North Sumatra Tourism Agency head, E Marbun, argued that Karo had been appointed to host the four-day-long festival after Samosir regency had refused.

He said that the Karo administration had only prepared the venue but that festival expenses were the responsibility of the provincial administration and the Tourism Ministry, adding that the provincial administration had spent Rp 2 billion while the ministry allocated Rp 1.4 billion for the event.

Karo Regent Terkelin Brahmana expressed his thanks that Karo had been appointed as host for this year'€™s Lake Toba festival and said that he hoped the event would help boost tourism in the regency.

'€œTourist visits to Karo began to decline when Mount Sinabung erupted in 2010 and numbers have continued to consistently decline annually up to the present day,'€ Terkelin said.

Mt. Sinabung evacuee Maya Tarigan of Gurukinayan subdistrict, however, expressed disappointment that the festival was to be held without involving the evacuees.

'€œThe people of Indonesia and the world may think that Sinabung is secure now because of the event. In fact, we are still suffering,'€ Maya told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

As of Thursday Mt Sinabung continued to erupt, spewing both pyroclastic flow and volcanic ash and forcing thousands of residents to remain housed in one of nine allocated evacuation centers.

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