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ombok in West Nusa Tenggara will be promoted as a destination for South Korean travelers under a cooperation program by the Tourism Ministry and the ASEAN-Korea Center.

I Gde Pitana, the ministry’s deputy for the development of overseas tourism marketing, said that Lombok has the potential to attract visitors from South Korea, thanks to having natural tourism that has become well-known overseas, including the Gili islands — Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air — as well as Mount Rinjani. Lombok is also home to waterfalls and natural springs.

“South Korean travelers love nature. Therefore, we can promote these destinations,” Pitana said at a capacity building workshop themed, “Lombok: Opening New Dimensions for Korean Travelers”.

Organized by the ASEAN-Korea Center and the ministry, the workshop, which was held on Thursday, involved 70 tourism businesspeople from West Nusa Tenggara.

“In accordance with the national target to attract 20 million foreign tourists, this workshop was aimed at promoting Lombok as a burgeoning destination for South Korean tourists,” Pitana said.

Nationally, the number of South Korean tourists visiting Indonesia has increased from 328,000 in 2014 to 338,000 in 2015. However, the figure decreased slightly from 320,000 last year, lower than the targeted 400,000.

Meanwhile, the number of South Koreans traveling from their home country reached 19.3 million or 38 percent from the total population of 50.2 million. However, the contribution of South Korean visitors to Indonesia’s foreign tourism market was still very low, only 2 percent in 2015.

“South Korea actually has good potential for our tourism market. Tourism stakeholders should find out why the number of visitors from that country decreased last year and rearrange new strategies to attract more of them.”

Kim Young-sun, secretary general of ASEAN-Korea Center, said offering tour packages that include Bali, in addition to Lombok, could help attract South Koreans.

He said that one of the problems getting South Korean tourists to visit Lombok was the absence of a direct flight from Korea. However, in the future, it is not impossible that direct flights would be available with the support from the ministry and the ASEAN-Korea Center.

Kim further explained that South Koreans who visit a destination for the first time usually come in groups. Subsequently, they would come individually.

“Therefore, travel agents in Korea and in Indonesia play an important role [to cater to the needs of the travelers].”

Travel agents, he added, had to be able to create tourism products that cater to their needs by understanding what Koreans were expecting when visiting a destination.

To increase the number of Korean travelers to Indonesia, tourism stakeholders should prepare themselves by increasing the standard and quality of the destinations they promote.

Kim, former Korean ambassador to Indonesia, who had visited Lombok several times, said that Korean visitors would enjoy the culture and beauty of the island. “I’m sure about this because I myself feel at home when in Lombok.”