Cirata Dam

Cirata Dam

From Pelita

The Cirata Dam in West Java should be attracting a large
number of foreign tourists given its beautiful vista. However, it
appears that the dam, which was opened 10 years ago by the
President, has not attracted many visitors. It has developed into
a tourism site for "local" visitors from Cianjur, Bandung, and
Purwakarta.

The dam is located near other tourist sites in the Cianjur
region, like Puncak and Cipanas. The apparent isolation of Cirata
Dam from other sites should not be an obstacle, especially if
efforts are made to combine it with other tourist destinations in
one package. Take for instance, the Pancimas package
(Pangandaran, Cilacap and Banyumas), which encourages tourists to
extend their trip to the region of Cilacap to visit Nusakambangan
island and the Sea Village before traveling towards Banyumas to
see Batu Raden.

Six thousand hectares of marine tourism spread over three
districts -- Cianjur, Bandung and Purwakarta -- have much
potential, provided that obstacles hindering supportive
facilities can be removed. As far as we know, nobody has shown an
interest in tourism development in the area. But if this could be
changed, and the necessary facilities established, we are certain
that this site would draw many more tourists because of the
site's strategic location and proximity to Bandung, Cianjur,
Bogor and Jakarta.

Maybe this project could be started under the coordination of
the district administrations of Cianjur, Purwakarta and Bandung.
We are quite certain that if the infrastructure was
professionally managed, it would complement other tourist
attractions in the vicinity.

MAMAN SUHERMAN

Cianjur, West Java