TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Toba Lake Festival (Danau Toba Fiesta) is planned to be held in mid-September and the event is expected to introduce tourism in North Sumatra and to be recognized by the world.
“The Provincial Government of North Sumatra is ready and have appointed the District Government of Toba Samosir as host,” Local Secretary of North Sumatra Province, H. Nurdin, said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the initial plan, the Danau Toba Fiesta will be held on September 17 to 21, 2014 and the District of Toba Samosir has been established as the organizer and next year by the District Government of Simalungun.
Chairman of the Indonesian Travel Association (Asita) of North Sumatra, Solahuddin Nasution, say this year’s Danau Toba Festival preparation should be maximized in order to achieve a maximum result.
“The event shouldn’t be delayed in order for tourists who already knew about the agenda and have scheduled their visit will not be disappointed,” Solahuddin said.
As an annual tourism activity, Solahuddin said, Danau Toba Festival should not change its schedule in order to ease promotion and sales event to domestic and foreign countries.
“If the Provincial Government of North Sumatra increases their quality and promotes the attractions of North Sumatra, then the hope to regain the number of tourists as much as 500,000 people, such as back in the 1990s, can be quickly achieved,” Solahuddin said.
The hopes can be quickly achieved with the presence of Kualanamu Airport, Polonia’s replacement, the number of tourist arrivals in North Sumatra continue to increase.
Central Statistic Agency (BPS) Data of North Sumatra revealed that until the first semester, tourist visits increases by 5.31 percent from last year (129,382 people).
ANTARA | B KUNTO WIBISONO
