T

he West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) administration has set the bar high for the 2018 Tambora Charm Festival in Sumbawa Island with expectations to bring in more foreign tourists and further propel the magnitude of local tourist attractions.

The festival is set to showcase art and cultural attractions in the island’s five regencies and cities. It also involves the Mount Tambora National Park center to further promote Tambora tourism, NTB Tourism Agency head Lalu Mohammad Faozal said.

The agency has set a target of 1,500 foreign tourist visits this year. The festival will run from April 1 to 11 in which all regions on the island will participate in promoting their tourist attractions by each holding smaller festivals as well as art and cultural activities in the respective areas.

“We have coordinated with all local administrations in Sumbawa Island for the Tambora Charm Festival as it has been included as part of the 100 national tourism events under the Wonderful Indonesia campaign,” he said in Mataram on Tuesday.

Faozal cited examples like Bima regency, which would organize Teka Tambora, or climbing Tambora festival, while Bima city planned to hold Lawata Festival on Lawata Beach.

Sumbawa regency will hold the “A Night in Loka” festival, referring to a site of the Sumbawa sultanate palace.

Furthermore, West Sumbawa regency will showcase the Tano Festival and will hold the extreme marathon race Tambora Challenge 320k.

“In Dompu regency, as the center of the series of activities, we will hold the Fest in Fest event. So, there will be a lot of festivals there,” said Faozal, adding that the peak of the Tambora festival will be on April 11 in Savana Ndoro Ncanga at the foot of Mt. Tambora.

Separately, head of the TNGT center, Raden Agus Budi Santosa, said his office would promote the national park as the Africa of Sumbawa.

He said Tambora has a giant caldera that is 7 kilometers in diameter, showing the magnitude of the volcano’s eruption in 1815.

It is also the home of highland forest and savannah. “With this it can be said that Tambora is the Africa of Sumbawa.”

For the Tambora Festival, the center will prepare a number of attractions around the park, including the Tambora forest trail and Tambora charm conservation jamboree.

Administratively, the 2,850-meter-high Mt. Tambora is located in Dompu and Bima regencies. The volcano’s eruption in April 1815 was said to be extremely severe and had affected the world’s climate.

To help promote the tourism potential of the region, in 2015 the NTB provincial administration initiated an event called Tambora Menyapa Dunia (Tambora greeting the world), which coincided with the second century anniversary of the 1815 eruption.

Agus said Tambora offers tourists many things to enjoy including a rich biodiversity.

The national park is also rich in natural water tourism potential including the Oi Marai River in Kawindatoi subdistrict, which has seven waterfalls along its banks.

“One of them is Bidadari waterfall, which has a relatively big water depth that is some 20 m,” he said.

The area, according to Agus, is also host to adrenalin driven activities such as trekking, horse riding, river tubing and camping.

He said the park was expecting to see at least 5,000 tourists visiting the area this year, in light of the growing number of tourist visits in the last three years, especially after the area was named a national park in 2015.

“Before we only had 200 tourists visiting annually. Now the figure has reached the thousands,” Agus said, adding that events like Tambora Charm Festival would further promote Mt. Tambora.