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Indonesian Tourism Ministry promotes diving at Tokyo Marine Diving Fair
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Female free diver swims underwater over vivid coral reef. (Shutterstock/-)
W
ith its unique geography and biodiversity, Indonesia’s world-renowned maritime tourism industry has the potential to grow. As a maritime country, Indonesia has one of the longest coastlines in the world with a 51,000 kilometer-per-square coral reef area.
With the intention of raising the visitors target in 2017 to 15 million tourists, the Indonesian Tourism Ministry along with 10 diving operators have been taking part in the Marine Diving Fair in Tokyo from April 7 to April 9. International sales deputy I Gde Pitana along with the Asia-Pacific assistant sales deputy, Vinsensius Jemadu, both said that diving, which is a niche market, would be taken advantage of to tap into Indonesia’s maritime tourism industry.
“There are several activities in the Indonesian pavilion including presentations on new diving spots in Indonesia, cultural performances from Bali, presentations of Indonesian coffee that is already famous in Japan and also Indonesian food,” Pitana explained. “The most interesting part of the Indonesian pavilion is the pinisi ship likeness. We’re still the champion of maritime beauty,” he said.
According to Pitana’s records, the coral reefs in Indonesian waters comprise 18% of the total area of the world’s coral reefs. Indonesia is also home to more than 55 diving destinations and has more than 1,500 dive spots spreading from Weh Island in Aceh to Cendrawasih Bay in Papua.
Among the new diving spots introduced at the event were Sonegat, Keraka Island, Syahrir Batu Kapal Island, Hatta Island, Ai Island, 20 dive spots in Bunaken and Wakatobi, 88 dive spots in Lembeh Strait North Sulawesi, three diving spots in Weh Island, Aceh, several dive spots in Labuan Bajo, Komodo Island and Rinca Island in East Nusa Tenggara, 50 dive spots in Alor, 28 dive spots in Derawan, Teluk Cendrawasih and Raja Ampat.
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“The world has acknowledged that Indonesia is home to some of the world’s best diving spots, namely Raja Ampat, the Komodo islands, Derawan, Togean, Wakatobi, Gili Air and Bunaken. These are havens to divers, as in Indonesia they are able to dive all year long, and this is why we’re going to keep enticing Japanese divers,” Vinsensius added.
The pinisi boat sculpture marks Indonesia’s presence at the event as Tourism Minister Arief Yahya instructed for the Indonesian pavilion to present the best visuals so visitors would be able to see the promotions, take selfies and allow them to potentially go viral on social media.
“We must present our country’s natural beauty and the uniqueness of Indonesian culture,” Arief said. “Indonesia has huge potential – two thirds of the world’s coral reefs and biodiversity are in Indonesia. It would be a great shame if we could not convince international tourists to dive into our country’s maritime abundance,” he concluded. (asw)
