T

he beauty of nature, culture and people’s hospitality in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), have impressed South Korean tourists visiting the area.

Kim Hyun-ki, the manager of Anjani Tour and Travel, said the tourists were happy to have chosen Lombok as their holiday destination. The company has been providing charter flights since last month.

“They said the beach and the mountain were beautiful; they also appreciated the warm welcome and hospitality of the local people,” Kim said.

Under the charter flight program, about 1,000 South Korean tourists had spent between four and five days in Lombok.

Anjani offered a number of traveling packages that covers various sites ranging from waterfalls — including Benang Stokel waterfall in Central Lombok, Sendang Gile waterfall in North Lombok — to white sandy beaches, like North Lombok’s three famous islands Gili Trawangan, Air and Meno and Senggigi beach in West Lombok.

Lombok, however, has long lagged behind neighboring Bali that has garnered global and local recognition as Indonesia’s most famous tourist destination.

Following the positive response of the tourists, Anjani planned to offer more charter flight services for Korean nationals in collaboration with Korean Air in February.

But the plan could only be realized if conditions are conducive enough following the increase of volcanic activities of Mount Agung in Bali last month, which has since affected the tourism sector in NTB, and consequently Lombok as it continues to depend on Bali as its main entry for foreign tourists.

“We [also] expect to have it as a regular flight in the future,” Kim said.

State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I general manager I Gusti Ngurah Arditha said the program was “good promotion for NTB in the future.”

Arditha added that his office has been communicating with Korean Air to introduce a regular flight connecting Korea and Lombok in the future.

With its ability to accommodate wide-body aircraft like the Airbus A330 and Boeing B747, the Lombok International Airport is ready to take on direct international flights from countries like Korea, he added.

Lombok Airport currently serves only two direct international flights namely Silk Air from Singapore and Air Asia from Malaysia. Last year, it was included in the list of airports across the country with free visa facilities for citizens from 159 countries.

The NTB has stepped up efforts to promote tourism across the province, including Lombok and other less famous spots like Sumbawa Island, by holding a series of cultural festivals in the past few years. Consequently, the province have seen a rise in the number of visitors from 2.2 million in 2015, half of whom were foreigners, to 3.1 million last year, as recorded by the NTB tourism agency.

“The charter flights for sure will be a good promotion in Korea,” NTB Tourism Agency head Lalu Mohammad Faozal said.