Borobudur festival takes on big ambition

Borobudur festival takes on big ambition

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Magelang, Central Java

Many think the Borobudur International Festival 2003 just like
any another festival. But for the Central Java administration, it
is a starting point of an ambition to turn the province into the
country's main tourist destination.

"We realize it's difficult to make our goal come true
considering Bali's popularity is still very strong," said the
province's Head of Tourism Office Henky Hermantoro, who is also
the festival's organizing committee secretary.

Moreover, he said, the province covers vast areas making it
hard to select one particular area for promotion. With that
problem, the province, in the short term, will work hard to make
it the second most popular destination after Bali, and the
Borobudur festival, it is hoped, will become the initial step to
further introduce the province.

The costly Rp 4.7 billion festival was organized to mark the
20th year since the Borobudur restoration and the Indonesian
Heritage Year 2003 from June 11 to June 17.

With "Balancing Heritage Conservation and Community
Development" as its central theme, the festival itself was
considered a success.

Officially opened by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on June
14, participants from a dozen of countries, including Indonesia
as host, turned up for the festival.

According to chairman of the festival's organizing committee
Mardjiono, as many as 200 foreign participants including 115 arts
and cultural foreign envoys from Vietnam, South Korea, Japan,
Belgium, Malaysia, India, Singapore and the U.S. took part in
various activities, like cultural performances, seminars, travel
mart and the mountain bike open championship.

Local participants included those from Central Java's 35
regencies and municipalities, as well as 12 provinces outside
Central Java taking part in various events, like art and
handicraft exhibitions and trade, tourism and investment expos.
The participating provinces included Yogyakarta, DKI Jakarta,
Banten, East Java, Bali, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and
North Maluku.

"We recorded a direct transaction of some Rp 2.3 billion from
the exhibitions alone during the festival," said Madjiono, who is
also Central Java provincial administration secretary.

Henky said the success of a festival like the Borobudur
festival could not be judged merely from the amount of
transactions. Some of the programs, like the Borobudur Travel
Mart (BTM) held concurrently in neighboring city of Surakarta on
June 12-15, might become fruitful in the future.

Some 44 participants from Malaysia, Thailand, China and Hong
Kong comprising travel writers and representatives from media and
tourism industries took part at the BTM, with a goal of improving
opportunities among tourism sectors from the participating
countries.

"That's why the Borobudur festival is a long-term oriented
program. We're not only after the present benefits but also
future opportunity," said Henky.

The success of the festival could also be seen from the great
number of visitors. The committee estimated that over 400,000
visitors came.

"The visitors contributed a lot to the amount of direct
transactions they made with local merchandisers, for souvenirs,
travel services or food, which might also reach similar amounts
of transactions that we recorded from the festival's
exhibitions," Henky said.

He also praised the presence of the Secretary General of the
World Tourism Organization Francesco Frangialli at the opening
ceremony where he presented of a plaque to President Megawati for
her strong support and commitment toward tourism in Indonesia.
Also present at the festival's official opening ceremony was
director and representative of United Nations Education, Science
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Indonesia Steven Hill, who
read out a written speech by the Director General of UNESCO
Koichiro Matsuura.

"I consider their presence a great success because it is not
an easy task for people to come to the country at this particular
time. It takes an extra effort to be able to do so," Henky said.

The Borobudur festival itself, according to him, was part of a
bigger program to promote tourism in the province which started
last year and focused more on nature and cultural aspects, two
sectors considered as the province's strength in the tourism
industry.

A number of tourism packages were prepared ahead of the
festival, including the recently introduced Sosebo package which
offers a unique experience while traveling the routes from
Surakarta to Borobudur. Other packages include religious-themed
ones, like to sacred places of Rembang-Demak-Kudus.

"So the Borobudur festival is basically a part of our large
tourism promotion. At this particular step, we set up the
products to sell them and after that we'll focus more on
networking, starting with ASEAN (the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations) and then Asia and Asia-Pacific countries. They are
strong markets. Through the festival we invited them too see our
potential, interests," Henky said.

"Making them come to the festival was not easy since they
(ASEAN member countries) are not free of problems. Singapore, for
instance, was facing the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
problem. Once it was declared free from SARS, they confirmed
their participation at the festival," he said.

He said the organizing committee approached the countries to
take part in the festival last year. "We did it through their
travel expositions in Britain for example, or in Berlin.
We also participated in travel seminars held in Malaysia, or
Singapore. We persuaded them to come to Indonesia, and Central
Java in particular," Henky said.

But he believed the success of the provincial administration's
plan would very much depend on the active participation of
related parties.