Published: February 16, 2023
The Regional Tourism Promotion Agency (BPPD) for Badung Regency, the most popular tourist destination in Bali, has announced that it will be trying out new promotional tactics in 2023. Speaking to reporters, the Head of the BPPD Badung, Ida Bagus Namarupa, explained that this year’s approach would be more dynamic, more fun, and focused on a broad range of traveler demographics.
The BPPD Badung has already announced that they will partner will vloggers and content creators to ‘aggressively’ promote the area in 2023. They have also shared that they will invest in promoting tourism villages as well as the area’s big resort destinations like Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, and Canggu.
Namarupa told reporters that during the pandemic domestic tourism was the biggest supporter of the industry. Now as Bali moves further away from the pandemic, Namarupa and his teams are looking to diversify their marketing tactics. He shared that his teams have studied the approaches and strategies of other popular tourism regions and national tourism boards. He confirmed that new strategies will be implemented, with a special focus on tourism villages, artisans, and other creative industries.
He explained, “Tourism is a dynamic thing, so it cannot stick to old patterns. For Badung itself, we will try to make a more fun promotion model. Maybe with a fun trip to a tourist village by providing experience on the wellness journey or indeed wellness tourism which is currently we made, and that is something new.”
Namarupa shared that the BPPD Badung will follow the lead of the Ministry for Tourism and Creative Economies when it comes to promoting the regency internationally. He continued, “promotion abroad is determined by the Ministry. If the signal is from the Regent, it is very supportive. If the Ministry has given permission, of course, we will coordinate with other countries. The point is that our focus is how to build and synchronize the tourism ecosystem. So promotion is one way to build tourism.”
He is optimistic that 2023 will see double the tourist arrivals in Bali than last year. Namarupa said, “We are optimistic that it will increase if we look at the timeshare, ticket bookings, and all kinds that will start from June.” He concluded with his encouragement to tourism stakeholders to embrace digitization as a way to compete with other tourism destinations internationally.
In December 2022, the Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economies, Sandiaga Uno, set ambitious targets for tourism in 2023. He announced that he wants to see Indonesia welcome 7.4 million international arrivals in the year ahead. During the announcement, he said, “this can be achieved if the focus is on two strengths, namely nature and culture. In addition, tourists with a special interest in ecotourism, spiritual tourism, and religious tourism”.
Ecotourism and village tourism are a key points of focus for stakeholders in Bali in 2023. Tourism leaders have spoken publicly in the last few weeks about their intentions to promote village and community-based tourism initiatives across the island. This all comes as part of a bigger move to help spread tourism revenue more equally around the province. Currently, the vast majority of tourism revenue is generated in the southern half of Bali, with much of the tourism development and infrastructure also being concentrated there too.
While villages like Penglipuran Village, Truyan Village, Celuk Village, and Munggu Tourism Village are amongst the most famous community-based tourism initiatives in Bali, there are, in fact, hundreds more to discover. As of the start of 2023, there were over 200 tourism villages across the province, 70% of which are in the pilot phase of development. Investment in tourism village initiatives appears to be a wise move, with travel trends revealing that more and more travelers to Bali want to do more than just relax on the beach. Adventure tourism is on the rise, and Bali’s tourism leaders are working to rise to the occasion.
