Eleven leading tourism businesses from Indonesia took center stage at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2019, winning several awards for excellence in four award categories: community-based tourism, homestays, spas and public toilets.

ATF 2019 was held on Jan. 14 to 18 in the city of Ha Long in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province. The 38th edition of the regional forum is a cooperative effort to promote ASEAN as a single tourist destination.

The annual event brings together players in the tourism industry from the 10 ASEAN states: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The award winners from Indonesia in the community-based tourism category are Karetan Market in Semarang, Central Java, and Bangsring Underwater in Banyuwangi, East Java, while Tembi Village Guest House in Bantul, Yogyakarta, won in the homestay category.

Arief Yahya (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

The spa award winners are Martha Tilaar Spa, the Jakarta branch of the Taman Sari Royal Heritage Spa and the Ubud Traditional Spa, Heaven Spa by Westin Nusa Dua and the Bhava Spa, all in Bali province.

Recognition in the best public toilets category goes to the Mulia Bali and the Bali Safari and Marine Park, as well as Tunjungan Plaza in Surabaya, East Java.

The Tourism Ministry stated in a press release that the country’s 11 ATF 2019 award winners helped place the spotlight on tourist attractions in Indonesia under in front of the 1,500 international delegates and 400 international buyers that attended the forum, as well as the 100 international journalists that covered the event.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the ministry’s target was to attract 20 million international tourists to Indonesia by the end of this year.

Statistics Indonesia data showed that 14.86 million foreign tourists visited the country until the end of November 2018, a year-on-year growth of 21.02 percent.

Beautiful scenery: The sunset at the Bajra Sandhi monument in Denpasar, Bali. Bali is Indonesia’s top tourist attraction, known for its beautiful landscapes and peaceful vibes. (JP/Agung Parameswara)

Arief said that the ministry continued to implement its branding, advertising and selling strategies — including attending the ATF — to promote local and national tourist attractions in attaining its 2019 target.

“ASEAN is a hot market for Indonesian tourism. Therefore, we don’t want to pass up this chance to optimize market opportunities in neighboring countries. Not only are Southeast Asian countries geographically close to us, they also share cultural ties with us,” he said.

The ministry invited 20 local tourism businesses as well as 20 representatives from supporting industries to join the government delegation and participate in the forum, according to its press release. It also state that the delegates promoted Indonesian tourism packages to stimulate activities that would bring more foreign tourists to the country.

Arief said that Indonesia needed to learn from Vietnam, which had been able to accelerate tourism growth. In 2018, Vietnam saw a 21 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals to 15.6 million people, higher than Indonesia’s foreign tourist arrivals during the 11 months of 2018, he said, citing the ministry’s data.

Rare species: Tourists witness a turtle lay her eggs on Kuta Beach in Bali in an event organized by environment organization Bali Sea Turtle Society. Environmentalists from the organization are working hard to conserve this rare species. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)

“[To boost growth], we need to deregulate the tourism industry and accelerate the adoption of digital technology to help it [progress] faster,” Arief said as quoted by tempo.co.

As part of national efforts to promote tourist attractions among its Southeast Asian neighbors, Indonesia would also take part in an upcoming competition held by the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA), the ministry said. The competition honors the region’s industry players that met ASEANTA’s standards of excellence.

According to Vita Datau Messakh, who is coordinating Indonesia’s participation in the ASEANTA competition, the event would be held in either March or April in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“We have submitted the documents of the industry players we have deemed suitable for taking part in the competition,” she said.