Indonesia & Bali Tourism New

Bali & Beyond Sales Mission Heads Down Under

The Annual Bali and Beyond Sales Mission is proving that it is very serious about supporting its two most respected markets by conducting a whirl-wind road show, aimed at educating Australian and New Zealand agents in the best of what the island paradise has to offer. The 24-strong delegation is travelling around both Australia and New Zealand for the next two weeks conducting a series of presentations and table top events. (more…)

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Indonesia’s minister for culture and tourism has issued a public apology over the government’s support of a controversial new museum whose construction caused major damage to an important archaeological site, the Art Newspaper reports.

First excavated in 1815 and added to Unesco’s World Heritage Site’s tentative list in 1995, the village of Trowulan in Mojokerto, East Java, is thought to have been established in 1292 by the Majapahit king Raden Wijaya when he conquered Java with the help of Chinese ruler Kublai Khan. (more…)

The Indonesian embassy in Hanoi held a friendship meeting on April 15, inviting former Vietnamese ambassadors, students and workers who had come to Indonesia to work and study.

Addressing the meeting, the Indonesian ambassador to Vietnam said the meeting aims to strengthen the exchange between the two countries at both central and grassroots levels. (more…)

JAKARTA (AFP) — An illegal trade in primates for laboratory tests is thriving in Indonesia despite local and international regulations designed to control such exports, a British animal welfare group said.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) said Indonesia should be suspended from the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for allowing the “disturbing trade.” (more…)

Putri Prameshwari

The historic Tanjung Priok Station in North Jakarta resumed rail services for the first time in almost a decade with a trial run on Monday.

Ahmad Sujadi, spokesman for the Jakarta office of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api, said the first of three trains conducted a test run at 9:30 a.m. The newly reopened line links Jakarta to the industrial district of Cikampek in East Jakarta and the cities of Purwakarta in West Java Province and Surabaya in East Java Province. (more…)

By ROBIN McDOWELL

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Conservationists have discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia — perhaps as many as 2,000 — giving a rare boost to one of the world’s most endangered great apes.

A team surveying forests nestled between jagged, limestone cliffs on the eastern edge of Borneo island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a “substantial” number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy. (more…)

Agus Maryono , The Jakarta Post , Banyumas

If you collect, research or are simply interested in Indonesia’s puppets - an integral part of the nation’s traditional culture - you would do well to visit the Banyumas Puppet Museum in the center of the Central Java city of Banyumas. (more…)

Nurfika Osman

The Sultanate of Ternate is looking to restore past glories and again place itself firmly on the world map with this year’s Legu Gam, or public celebration, from April 18 to May 3.

In conjunction with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the island and town of Ternate in North Maluku Province hopes Legu Gam would help preserve its culture and tourism, as well as promote the island as a tourist destination. (more…)

Putri Prameshwari

With the countdown to the “long election weekend” drawing to a close, many Indonesians are packed and ready for a short holiday ­— and travel agencies reported on Tuesday that ticket stocks are already getting slim.

By road, rail and air, millions of people are expected to take advantage of the four-day break, many perhaps choosing leisure over voting. (more…)

An initiative to attract association conferences hopes to attract more than 20,000 new delegates to Bali, Indonesia over the next two years, generating an additional $US50 million for the local economy.

It involves the development of a new Bali-based centre to host conferences and generate corporate sponsorship for international meetings. (more…)