Indonesia plans 15 Destination Management Organizations (DMOs)

•
Having scrutinized Indonesia’s many tourism potentials, the government has finally decided to initially develop 15 clusters of attractions to be managed through 15 Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), confirmed Director General for Destinations Development, Firmansyah Rahim at the DMO Conference held recently in Jakarta.

The fifteen DMO’s planned to be set up by 2014 are:
The Old Batavia area (Jakarta), Pangandaran beach and coastal area (West Java), LakeToba area (North Sumatra), the Bunaken islands (North Sulawesi), Tana Toraja highlands (South Sulawesi), Mentawai islands (West Sumatra), Bukittinggi (West Sumatra), Borobudur area (Central Java), Mt. Rinjani (West Nusatenggara) , Raja Ampat islands (West Papua), the Wakatobi islands (South East Sulawesi), Tanjung Putting Orang-utan reserve(South Kalimantan), the Derawan islands (East Kalimantan), Lake Batur- Mt. Kintamani (Bali), the Komodo-Kelimutu-Flores island (East Nusatenggara), and Mt. Bromo-Tengger-Mt. Semeru area (East Java).
DMOs are the latest concept in developing tourist destinations aimed at environmental, social and financial sustainability as well as global competitiveness of destinations based on strong management that comprise all stakeholders - the government, the industry, the local population and related interests. Thereby protecting the natural, cultural and social assets, to better provide economic welfare for the local population through tourism development and stakeholders participation.
At present three of the 15 DMO’s are already taking shape, they are the Flores DMO, initiated by Swiss Contact with Ausaid in West Flores, East Nusatenggara, now extending to include the entire island of Flores. Other projects are the Pangandaran project, south of Bandung, West Java, supported by UNWTO assistance for this tsunami-hit region and implemented by Indecon, and the Mt. Rinjani area in Lombok.
In all projects, key factor is the empowerment of the local population to organize itself and take ownership of developing the destination, once outside assistance is ceased.
The creation of tourism awareness among the local leadership and population seems to be the crucial and probably the most difficult part. Ary Suhandi, whose organization, Indecon (www.indecon.co.id) is charged with developing Pangandaran, said that this effort alone takes at least 2 years.
In West Manggarai, Flores, the local population and tourist industry, with the support of Swisscontact have so far managed to create a nucleus organization to grow into a Destination Management Organization for the region. This process, together with the identification of tourist attractions, active promotion of the region and the training of staff for the tourist industry has taken over 4 years. (www.florestourism.com)
Another DMO in devlopment is the Mt. Rinjani area in Lombok. For details visit www.lombokrinjanitrek.org.
Director General Firmansyah Rahim, warns, that the creation of sustanable destinations does not happen instantly, since the process to the fruition of these 15 Destinations to become globally competitive and self-sustainable may take some 30 years.
“We will only focus on Lake Toba and Pangandaran this year,” Firmansyah said. “Five more destinations, namely Komodo Island, Rinjani, Bali, Bunaken and Jakarta will be developed next year,” reported Jakarta Post. Another possibility is the Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan.
Firmansyah also said the government would allocate an annual budget of Rp 1 billion (US$110,000) towards the development of one destination.
• Garuda Indonesia launches Jakarta-Tokyo flights
Japan Today reported that Garuda Indonesia has launched direct flights between Jakarta and Tokyo from August 31. GA884 departed Jakarta at 11:50 p.m. and arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport at 9 a.m on 1 September.
The return flight, GA 885, leaves Tokyo at 12 noon and arrives in Jakarta at 17.45 p.m. The new service uses Airbus 330-200 that has a capacity of 222 passengers with a seating configuration of 36 passengers in Executive Class and 186 passengers in Economy Class.
Garuda Indonesia President and CEO Emirsyah Satar said, “In light of the growing trade relations between the two countries, we dedicate this direct service from Jakarta-Tokyo to passengers who are traveling on business to and from both countries. This service will ultimately add to the comfort and facility of traveling between Jakarta and Tokyo, particularly for Garuda Indonesia passengers.”
Garuda Indonesia already flies to other cities in Japan from Denpasar, Bali, such as to Nagoya three times a week and to Osaka five times a week, in addition to a daily schedule to Tokyo via Denpasar.
For passengers traveling from Japan, Garuda offers a new service, namely “Immigration on-Board,” which facilitates passengers with immigration assistance with Immigration officials issuing Visa On Arrival on board.
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Garuda vice president corporate communications Pujobroto said: "We have received seven additional landing rights for Tokyo Narita Airport, allowing Garuda to have up to 14 flights a week.
Garuda will launch services to Amsterdam via Dubai on June 1. It also plans to operate Jakarta-Taipei flights, presently under codeshare with China Airlines, on its own by year-end. Garuda's Bali-Taipei flights will continue as a codeshare service with China Airlines.
Garuda Indonesia plans to add four European points after reopening its Jakarta-Dubai-Amsterdam service on June 1. Top on the list for 2011 or 2012 are Frankfurt, London, Paris and Rome, said the airline’s vice president corporate secretary Pujobroto.

From Indonesia Digest