The provincial government of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) announced in Kupang that the province would be divided into four different “tourism clusters”, each centering around a key tourism attraction. Flores will be divided into two clusters, the first encompassing the Manggarai Barat, Manggarai, Manggarai Timur, Ngada and Nagekeo regencies. The notion is to develop this cluster as “exotic of island” (this is the English used in the Flores Pos article), of course epitomized by the Komodo dragons and the national park they reside in. Other tourism spots mentioned for this cluster involve “maritime sightseeing” around the waters in Labuan Bajo, diving in the 17 Islands Park in Riung, and the cultural tourism in Bena-Bajawa, as well as the archeaologial sites in Liang Bua (Manggarai).
The second cluster Flores is part of includes Ende, Sikka, Flores Timor and (off-island) Lembata regencies. It will be based on the notion of ecotourism, with its key attraction being Kelimutu, a set of volcano lakes whose hue periodically changes. Other attractions in this cluster include diving in Maumere Bay, the religious tourism for the Easter Procession in Larantuka and the traditional whale-hunting in Lamalera, Lembata. (My personal opinion is that the NTT tourism authorities should probably not promote this last attraction too much in the West).
The rest of the province is also divided into two more clusters, one consisting of (the Western part of) Timor, Alor, Rote and Sabu islands, and the other of the island of Sumba. The former offers potential for both maritime and cultural tourism, while the latter is renowned for its cultural heritage, such as the megalithic stones found on Sumba and traditional rituals still kept alive by its people.
This undertaking by the provincial government also seems to be supported by the Swiss government, mainly through a Swiss NGO by the name of Swisscontact (and whose employess I have run into before). Funds of about 4 million USD were provided by the Swiss, which is in line of a national goal set by the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) to develop further ten tourism destinations in Indonesia, including in NTT province. The Swiss ambassador to Indonesia explained that the goal of the Swiss project in Flores was to increase the number of tourists visiting the island from 25,000 annually in 2008 to 45,000 in 2013, and to permanently employ an additional 700 local people in the tourism industry.
(Source: Flores Pos of September 25, 2010)
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