The Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) Bali chapter welcomed the establishment of new tourism-related associations, hoping that they would make tourism promotion more effective by being focused on certain products.
GIPI also expected there would be additional tourism-related associations established in Bali serving the needs of other tourism products offered on the island, chairman Ngurah Wijaya said Friday.
One of the newly established groups is the Bali Wedding Association, a grouping of wedding organizers that serve both local and foreign clients wanting to tie the knot on the resort island.
Established last month, the Bali Wedding Association will be a new stakeholder in GIPI and be specifically managed under PHRI (The Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association).
“We warmly welcome the establishment of new associations in the tourism sector. We hope that the promotion of Bali’s tourism products will be more effective by focusing on certain market segments,” Wijaya told Bali Daily.
He lauded the commitment of wedding organizers in Bali to form the association and unite for their common interests and goals.
“We recently held our first meeting with the organizing committee of Bali Wedding Association to discuss how we could build synergy to develop weddings as a significant contributor to the tourism sector in Bali.”
He also expected that unregistered wedding organizers on the island, which had been rapidly growing in number since Bali became a popular wedding destination, would register their businesses with the authorities and comply with regulations.
This excessive number of unregistered wedding organizers in Bali was one of the factors encouraging the registered businesses to unite and establish a formal organization, the Bali Wedding Association. Established on Jan. 24, the association has around 100 members at present.
With the establishment of the association, the wedding businesses hoped the government would pay them more attention, including by providing support for promotions, as well as curbing the growth of unregistered businesses, said Deden Acep Saefulloh, association chairman.
“We hope there would be better control from the authorities. The presence of unregistered wedding organizers disadvantages us and the authorities as well,” said Deden from PT Bali Exotic Wedding.
He added that the aim of establishing the organization was also to standardize services for customers, including matters related to local customs, as well as to build better coordination with tourism stakeholders.
Another new organization that will be a tourism stakeholder is Bali Convention Bureau, which will focus on handling meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).
After long discourse, Bali is finally set to establish this convention bureau to optimize the management and promotions of MICE. This bureau will operate under the Bali Tourism Promotion Body (BPPD).
The promotion body has assigned five people to lead and manage the bureau. The team of five consists of companies and organizations specializing in MICE.
The five, who have outstanding credentials in the field, are Bali International Convention Center (BICC) director Saraswati Subadia, Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) director Rika Maylani, Ketut Jaman from the Indonesian Congress and Convention Association (INCC), Wiwien Gunawasika from the Indonesian Exhibition Companies Association (Asperapi) and a committee member from the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Body (BPPI), Mangku Kandia.
In addition to the Bali Wedding Association and the Bali Convention Bureau, plans were underway to establish other organizations, including the association of festival organizers and the association of sport tourism businesses, Wijaya said.
“Establishing the association of festival organizers is needed because Bali holds many festivals throughout the year. We have some well-established festivals, like Kuta Carnival, Sanur Festival and Nusa Dua Fiesta, and we also have the emerging ones,” he said.
He hoped that in the future these associations could get together in tourism promotion events in Indonesia and abroad, promoting Bali based on their respective products.
New tourism associations expected to improve promotion
No comments:
Post a Comment