TEMPO.CO, Banyuwangi - Indonesian Ambassador for Sweden and Latvia, Raden Bagas Hapsoro, is currently touring to see new potential tourist attractions. On Wednesday, Bagas visited Banyuwangi, East Java.

Bagas will also visit Aceh, Manado dan Palu. From those visits, the Indonesian Embassy in Sweden will promote new tourist attracts in Indonesia in Sweden.

Bagas said Banyuwangi has several interesting tourist attractions, such as Mount Ijne, Alas Purwo National park and Meru Betiri National Park. Banyuwangi also won UNWTO Award in Madrid, Spain. The award was given by World Tourism Organization for innovation in developing tourism potential.

Bagas said the number of Swedish tourists visitn Indonesia is still relatively few. In 2013, there were only 27,600 people.

Bagas explained that tourists from Sweden visit Yogyakarta, Bali and Sumatera. “Tourists from Sweden love eco-tourism,” he said.

Bagas added that Indonesia has a potential to attract people in West European countries due to their high income per capita, around 47,000 Euros. Winter is West Europe also occurs for six months “During winter, European residents will surely travel abroad,” he said.

Banyuwangi Regent official Zarkasi welcomed Bagas’ willingness to promote Banyuwangi’s tourism to West Europe.

Promotion of Banyuwangi’s tourism has boosted the number of local tourists by 161 percent, from 651,500 in 2010 to 1,701,230 in 2015. The number of foreign tourists also increased by 210 percent from 13,200 in 2010 to 41,000 in 2015.

IKA NINGTYAS