Nusa Dua in Bali is hosting an international-scale travel fair until Saturday. 

The Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) brings together 220 foreign and local tour operators as buyers and 154 sellers from hotels, destination marketing organizations (DMO) and inbound travel operators, as well as local tourism boards from 22 provinces in Indonesia. In its third year, the event aims to promote the potential of Bali and surrounding destinations. 

“Tourism is the fourth biggest sector in contributing to foreign exchange in Indonesia,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya. “But unlike other sectors, only [the income from the] tourist sector increases.”

Aiming to attract 20 million tourists by 2019, the government has started accelerating development in areas that have high tourist potential. One of the efforts is to focus on 10 destinations that have been dubbed the “new Bali”, which were revealed during a seminar held on the first day of the tourism fair.  

“Morotai, Tanjung Lesung, Mandalika and Tanjung Kelayang are already acknowledged as special economic zones. At the moment, we are also creating a foundation and single management system for the other six,” said Arie Prasetyo from the Tourism Ministry's initiative to accelerate the development of priority tourist destinations. 

The other six destinations are areas that have already proven popular, namely Lake Toba, Wakatobi, Thousand Islands, Borobudur, Mount Bromo and Labuan Bajo. 

(Read also: How to enjoy the long weekend in Bali)

“Our target is to establish a tourism management authority that will coordinate development and authorization matters, because these six destination don’t yet have a management [structure]."

“But our responsibility is not only to focus on the area, but on a bigger scale, to deliver development in the designated areas,” Arie added.

Bali, meanwhile, will not be left behind. The concept of introducing “Bali and beyond” as a whole offers a lot of potential, Center for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) strategic marketing expert Alfons van Duijvenbode said during the seminar.  

CBI is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and is commissioned by the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry. Van Duijvenbode has assisted several destinations in Indonesia, beyond Bali, to be developed as tourist destinations.

“We see that destinations beyond Bali are largely unknown. But Bali and beyond, in our view, is a win-win concept,” Alfons said. 

(Read also: Six free things to do in Bali)

He explained that Bali could become a gateway or a hub to connect visitors to outer islands, offering different attractions and experiences. 

“Bali is a gateway and a loved brand, typically a repeat destination, and the destinations in outer island piggyback with Bali […] People are looking for extraordinary combinations and experiences,” he added. 

Arief said he was optimistic about the success of the BBTF and aimed to raise US$520 million through buyer-seller transactions this year, $120 million higher than last year's revenue. The government also aims to scale up next year's event by inviting international sellers to participate as exhibitors. 

“We want to make the BBTF the largest international travel mart, better than ITB Berlin [the world’s largest travel fair],” he said. (kes)

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