Lake Toba promotion efforts aim to make waves
Lake Toba promotion efforts aim to make waves
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Parapat, North Sumatra
In its fourth holding this year, the Lake Toba Folk Festival
featured its usual attractions, such as music and dance
performances by the Batak people of North Sumatra who consider
the area their sacred homeland.
But brought out to center stage this time around at Southeast
Asia's largest lake were water sports, particularly jets-skiing,
which local tourism officials believe may be able to whip up
flagging interest in the area.
Local hoteliers report visitor numbers, especially of foreign
tourists, have dropped to this ancient and mysterious area, with
the huge lake featuring the "jewel" of Samosir Island.
Province officials, including Governor T. Rizal Nurdin, donned
wetsuits and climbed aboard jet skis for the opening ceremony on
June 26.
Along with 68 jet skiers from Jakarta-based Indonesian
Jetsport Boating Association (IJBA), the governor toured Lake
Toba. Starting from the housing compound of the provincial
administration, the 149.5-km-long route included Tuktuk, Tomok,
Pangururan, Muara, Balige and Parapat, all tourist resort towns
on the lake shores.
Tomok, for example, is notable for history buffs as it is home
to the graves of Batak kings, such as King Sidabutar. Here
tourists, aside from visiting the graves and listening to stories
about the Batak kings, can also enjoy the Sigale-Gale statue
traditional dance performance. Rizal and his entourage stopped at
Tomok to visit the grave of Sidabutar and watch a performance of
the traditional dance.
"Touring the lake on a jet ski is really an interesting
experience as you can savor much of the natural beauty," Rizal
said.
The governor hoped that the promotion of jet-skiing would
boost tourist foreign and domestic arrivals in the area,
especially after local hotel and tourism operators reported a
drop in the number of tourists visiting Lake Toba in the last few
years.
Data compiled by North Sumatra Tourism Board show that annual
visitor numbers to Lake Toba are very small, and account for only
5 percent of foreign tourist arrivals in North Sumatra.
In 2003, only 4,068 of a total of 81,538 foreign tourists to
the province made their along the bumpy roads to Lake Toba. They
were generally from Malaysia, the Netherlands, Germany and
Britain.
Ranti Tobing, the owner of Toledo Inn Samosir, for example,
said in the past two years that there were relatively few foreign
tourists visiting the lake between June and August, previously a
good period for visitors.
"Usually, when it is summer in the northern hemisphere, a lot
of European tourists come to Lake Toba. I don't know why in the
past two years there have been only a few."
She added that most European tourists visiting the lake came
from the Netherlands.
"Usually they stay here for three to five days. But only a few
Dutch tourists come now."
The lack of visitors has led to hotel owners slashing their
room rates. The rate for renting a room in a local home ranges
from Rp 5,000 to Rp 200,000 a day, she said. Non-star-rated
hotels charge between Rp 100,000 and Rp 200,000 per person per
day, while star-rated hotels charge Rp 300,000 above per person
per day, she added.
Meanwhile, the president of the North Sumatra Tourism Board,
Henry Hutabarat, said there were several factors involved in the
lack of tourist interest in the area.
Although there has been a global decline in travel due to the
war on terrorism and some countries have imposed travel
advisories on Indonesia, the main factor, he said, was the
dilapidated state of the roads leading to it from Medan and other
cities.
It takes over four hours by bus from Medan to Parapat, he
added.
However, an alternative route from Medan to Brastagi in Karo
regency and then to the lake cuts the time to 2.5 hours.
"The road on this alternative route is not good either but you
can get very close to the Toba Lake sooner. The local
administration must immediately take care of road facilities to
the lake area if it expects to boost tourist arrivals there,"
Henry added.
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Parapat, North Sumatra
In its fourth holding this year, the Lake Toba Folk Festival
featured its usual attractions, such as music and dance
performances by the Batak people of North Sumatra who consider
the area their sacred homeland.
But brought out to center stage this time around at Southeast
Asia's largest lake were water sports, particularly jets-skiing,
which local tourism officials believe may be able to whip up
flagging interest in the area.
Local hoteliers report visitor numbers, especially of foreign
tourists, have dropped to this ancient and mysterious area, with
the huge lake featuring the "jewel" of Samosir Island.
Province officials, including Governor T. Rizal Nurdin, donned
wetsuits and climbed aboard jet skis for the opening ceremony on
June 26.
Along with 68 jet skiers from Jakarta-based Indonesian
Jetsport Boating Association (IJBA), the governor toured Lake
Toba. Starting from the housing compound of the provincial
administration, the 149.5-km-long route included Tuktuk, Tomok,
Pangururan, Muara, Balige and Parapat, all tourist resort towns
on the lake shores.
Tomok, for example, is notable for history buffs as it is home
to the graves of Batak kings, such as King Sidabutar. Here
tourists, aside from visiting the graves and listening to stories
about the Batak kings, can also enjoy the Sigale-Gale statue
traditional dance performance. Rizal and his entourage stopped at
Tomok to visit the grave of Sidabutar and watch a performance of
the traditional dance.
"Touring the lake on a jet ski is really an interesting
experience as you can savor much of the natural beauty," Rizal
said.
The governor hoped that the promotion of jet-skiing would
boost tourist foreign and domestic arrivals in the area,
especially after local hotel and tourism operators reported a
drop in the number of tourists visiting Lake Toba in the last few
years.
Data compiled by North Sumatra Tourism Board show that annual
visitor numbers to Lake Toba are very small, and account for only
5 percent of foreign tourist arrivals in North Sumatra.
In 2003, only 4,068 of a total of 81,538 foreign tourists to
the province made their along the bumpy roads to Lake Toba. They
were generally from Malaysia, the Netherlands, Germany and
Britain.
Ranti Tobing, the owner of Toledo Inn Samosir, for example,
said in the past two years that there were relatively few foreign
tourists visiting the lake between June and August, previously a
good period for visitors.
"Usually, when it is summer in the northern hemisphere, a lot
of European tourists come to Lake Toba. I don't know why in the
past two years there have been only a few."
She added that most European tourists visiting the lake came
from the Netherlands.
"Usually they stay here for three to five days. But only a few
Dutch tourists come now."
The lack of visitors has led to hotel owners slashing their
room rates. The rate for renting a room in a local home ranges
from Rp 5,000 to Rp 200,000 a day, she said. Non-star-rated
hotels charge between Rp 100,000 and Rp 200,000 per person per
day, while star-rated hotels charge Rp 300,000 above per person
per day, she added.
Meanwhile, the president of the North Sumatra Tourism Board,
Henry Hutabarat, said there were several factors involved in the
lack of tourist interest in the area.
Although there has been a global decline in travel due to the
war on terrorism and some countries have imposed travel
advisories on Indonesia, the main factor, he said, was the
dilapidated state of the roads leading to it from Medan and other
cities.
It takes over four hours by bus from Medan to Parapat, he
added.
However, an alternative route from Medan to Brastagi in Karo
regency and then to the lake cuts the time to 2.5 hours.
"The road on this alternative route is not good either but you
can get very close to the Toba Lake sooner. The local
administration must immediately take care of road facilities to
the lake area if it expects to boost tourist arrivals there,"
Henry added.