Indonesian Best Destination 2009

Wuih... Solo Tujuan wisata Terbaik

Pemerintah Kota Surakarta, Jawa Tengah, akan segera membenahi sejumlah obyek wisata setelah Solo meraih penghargaan sebagai "Indonesian best destination" dalam Indonesian Tourism Award (ITA) 2009, Jumat (13/11) malam tadi.


"Penghargaan itu bukan merupakan parameter kesuksesan kami dalam melakukan pembenahan sejumlah tempat tujuan wisata yang kami miliki," kata Wali Kota Solo, Joko Widodo di Solo, Sabtu (14/11).


Dia mengatakan, hal tersebut malah menjadi pemacu Pemkot Surakarta untuk segera membenahi lokasi-lokasi tujuan wisatawan yang saat ini dinilai kurang terawat dan perlu pembenahan. "Dengan kondisi yang masih belum maksimal saja Solo meraih penghargaan tersebut. Apalagi bila kita membenahi dan menyempurnaan penataan lokasi-lokasi tujuan wisatawan, pasti hasil yang lebih baik dapat tercapai," kata dia.


Oleh karena itu, lanjutnya, Pemkot Surakarta semakin terpacu untuk segera melakukan pembenahan. "Saat ini kami sudah mengajukan sejumlah proposal ke pemerintah pusat dan pemerintah provinsi untuk pembenahan sejumlah cagar budaya di Solo," katanya.


Salah satu cagar budaya yang akan segera dibenahi adalah Pura Mangkunegaran yang dianggarkan Rp 25 mliar. Selain itu, juga cagar budaya Masjid Agung. "Akan tetapi, hal tersebut terkendala belum dimasukkannya pembenahan tempat tersebut pada draf RAPBD 2010," katanya.


Saat ini, lanjut Joko, Pemkot Surakarta baru bisa berharap dari dana yang mungkin akan diturunkan dari pemerintah pusat dan pemerintah provinsi. Dia berharap jika semua lokasi tujuan wisata, termasuk bangunan cagar budaya, dapat dibenahi, Solo tidak hanya mendapat manfaat dengan berupa penghargaan saja, tetapi juga dengan mendapatkan wisatawan lebih banyak.


"Selain itu, kami juga berharap penghargaan tersebut dapat memacu pelaku bisnis wisata untuk iktu memajukan dunia pariwisata Solo," kata Joko Widodo.


Sumber:
regional.kompas.com

Welcome to the Singkarak Lake, West of Sumatera

Abstract Since long it has been accepted that Lake Singkarak in Central Sumatra is nothing else but a remnant of a gigantic volcano — the Singkarak volcano — which once blew off its top to form a lake. Van Bemmelen, though not referring to Singkarak lake especially, explained the numerous depressions in Sumatra as the combined result of volcanic and tectonic activities, a phenomenon he called volcano-tectonic process which caused the formation of the socalled volcano-tectonic depressions.

A short visit to the lake area in the months of February and March (1970) convinced the author that Lake Singkarak is neither a volcanic ruin nor a volcano-tectonic depression in the sense of van Bemmelen.


Faulting evidences, morphology and the position of the Singkarak trough plus the distribution of volcanic products north and south of the lake led to the conclusion that the Singkarak trough is a depression making part of the 1650 km graben zone which stretches from Sumatra’s northern tip untill the Semangko valley in the SE. Field evidences suggest that the lake results from a damming process by volcanic material produced by the Marapi-Singgalang-Tandikat volcanoes in the north and by the products from the Talang volcano in the south.


by Dept. of Geology-Geophysics (ITB), Indonesia.

source:
www.singkarak.com

Tourist arrivals in Indonesia up 2.61 pct

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia in the first half of 2009 rose 2.61 percent to 2.97 million from the same period last year, a tourist official said.


"In June 2009 alone, the number of tourist arrivals rose 4.06 percent from a year earlier," Domestic Promotion Director at the Culture and Tourism Ministry Fathul Bahri said here on Wednesday.


He expressed his belief the global economic downturn, the spread of H1N1 flu virus and the July 17 bomb attacks at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta would have no significant impact on the number of tourist arrivals in the country this year.


The number of tourist arrivals in Jakarta only fell 5 percent in the wake of the bomb attacks that left nine people dead and more than 590 others injured, he said.


"But there was no decline in the number of tourist arrivals in other tourist destinations such as Bali and Lombok (following the bomb attacks)," he said.


Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) show the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia in June 2009 reached around 550,600, up 4.07 percent from June 2008, or 5.53 percent from May 2009.


The number of foreign tourist arrivals through the country`s 11 main entry gates in June 2009 went up 4.95 percent to 466,900 from 444,900 in June 2008.


"The figure is promising now that the number of tourist arrivals in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore recorded negative growth," he said.


He said he remained optimistic that the country would be able to achieve its tourist arrival target of 6.5 million for 2009.(*)

source:
ANTARA