DENPASAR ~

The Bali Province administration will establish 12 tourism villages in 2015 to attract more international tourists to the Island.

“We are targeting to build 12 tourism villages. We are still waiting for proposals from district administrations so that we can start developing villages for the program,” Chief of the Tourism Service of Bali Province Anak Agung Gde Yuniartha Putra said on Thursday.

The Bali administration will develop human resources and infrastructure facilities in tourism villages and will ensure the security and comfort of tourists.

Yuniartha noted that village administrations must be able to offer tourists several attractions.

“Every tourism village should offer attractions that are unique to it. For example, if a village has hills, then they can offer hiking activity. Likewise, if a village has plantation fields, the administration can offer paddy or coffee planting activities,” the Chief explained.

He expressed hope that tourists will help local economies by spending their mooney on these activities that will be offered at affordable prices.

The Chief observed that the tourism village concept has great potential and is suitable for Bali that has several cultural tourism sites with specific characteristics.

“There are several places in Gianyar district that can be developed into tourism villages; for instance, Batubulan village that specializes in stone carving or Mas village, which does wood carving, and Ubud village that is popular for its paintings,” Yuniartha pointed out.

The Chief added that tourism villages can improve local economies and will subsequently help other villages too.

“In 2014, we developed a similar tourism village program involving 11 villages. We are targeting to establish 100 tourism villages by 2018,” Yuniartha revealed.