Sparkling Sulawesi was joined by the entire Sulawesi provinces such as South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and Gorontalo, alongside 23 regencies and cities.

The event featured dance and music performances, souvenir exhibition, tour packages, cultural attractions, heritage sites and Sulawesi traditional dishes. The exhibition was held in Surabaya because East Java has the second largest population in Indonesia after West Java and there are plenty of transportations available from Surabaya to Sulawesi. 

Tourism Ministry’s archipelago tourism marketing development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said that the event aimed to increase the number of local tourists. “Up until August 2017, the number of local tourists was 200 million, beyond the initial target of 180 million people,” she said.

In 2015 the number of local tourists was 256 million and in 2016 it was 264 million people.

Esthy added that if in this year there are 265 million trips by local tourists with the total spending of 241.08 trillion rupiahs, in five years the number will increase up to 275 million trips and the total spending will be doubled as well.

When it comes to international tourists, from the period of January – August this year, the number went up by 25.68 percent, three times than the ASEAN regional growth that’s at seven percent and four times than the global growth that is at 6.4 percent.

In 2014, the number of international tourists was 9.3 million people, in 2015 it was 10.4 million people, in 2016 it was 12 million people and there were 9.2 million international tourists who came to Indonesia up until August this year. (asw)

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