Bali named the 2008 world's best exotic destination

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

London-based Luxury Travel magazine named Bali as the 2008 best exotic destination, an official said.

"The readers of the magazine, which circulates in 27 countries in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, have selected Bali as the best tourist resort island with Mauritius and Thailand in second and third places respectively," head of Bali tourism agency I Gde Nurjaya told The Jakarta Post in Denpasar on Thursday.

He said he received the information from the Indonesian Embassy in London on Wednesday.

"The award from the magazine will be sent to us via our embassy in England," he said.

This is the first award Bali has received in 2008. In previous years the island has received various commendations from different tourism-related publications.

In 2007, Bali was nominated the world's best tourist destination by two Asian and one U.S. magazines.

In 2006, the influential TIME magazine awarded Bali as the world's best tourist destination. The selection was based on a poll involving the magazine's 4.7 million readers.

Nurjaya said he expects the award would improve the island's tourism image which has been haunted by two recurring problems; security and cleanliness.

Bali should deal with the mounting annual problem of garbage along the shores of its prime tourist beaches like Kuta, Nurjaya said. The garbage is washed ashore by changing ocean currents, he said.

"It (the garbage) could have originated from anywhere given that Bali is a part of an archipelagic country, with a vast body of water," Nurjaya said.

"This problem can not be resolved effectively by one sector or one agency alone."

Nurjaya added that foreign visitors were very concerned with the mounting garbage problem.

"I have just received a letter from an Irish tourist. In the letter he expressed his disappointment at the island's poor level of cleanliness."

To develop a comprehensive response to the garbage problem, Nurjaya said he had notified regents and heads of other government agencies across Bali, about the need to take immediate action to tackle pollution.

"Many regencies in Bali have begun forest conservation campaigns and garbage cleaning drives. This type of activities are most effective in preserving the island's natural assets and level of cleanliness," he said.

Nurjaya estimates that this year Bali would be visited by some 1.9 million foreign tourists.

"I made the estimate based on the number of foreign visitors who came to Bali during 2007, which reached 1.66 million."

The Indonesian government kicked off its Visit Indonesia Year 2008 tourism campaign in December last year.

The Tourism and Cultural Ministry had planned to organize at least 100 events throughout Indonesia, to attract some seven million foreign tourists to the country this year.

This year's targeted number of foreign tourists is 27 percent higher than the 2007 target of 5.5 million set by the government.