I Made Dwija Nurjaya
"Sacred and Healthy"

Probably, the product we made is thoroughly ‘the best in the world’, says I Made Dwija Nurjaya a bit pride fully, the producer of Ayur Herbal Incense Stick from Denpasar to Bali Travel News. He admits to be interested in producing incense stick after learning intensely about Ayur Veda. At the beginning, incenses stick of his production was intended for self-consumption. However, in keeping with the time passes by, he had an intention to produce more for commercial needs. "I apply ‘perfect’ concept meaning that entire composition of ingredients blend used should be 100% in compliance with Ayur Veda," he says while adding that this method assuredly costs expensively so he reduces its size in order it remains to have the standard as in Ayur Veda. Added, the method of process has been done ‘sacredly’ (hygienic). It means that the employees involved in the production should be purely clean at work, either physically or spiritually. For that purpose, he even provides day-off to his employees who are in their periods. Ingredients utilized are made up of spices widely available in nature such as cloves, honey, milk and so forth. While, to pack it he applies a hand roll method. And, if the ingredients required are not available in the market, he will pursue it by himself to every nook and cranny of villages to the dense jungle. "To market our product, consumers are coming in person to our shop, while for foreign market is assisted by agents. Those agents all the time market it to America, France and Australia," he utters while adding that his consumers are from several circles including the owners of spa and other aficionados of natural products. To improve the quality of his product composed, the holder of undergraduate degree in economics and alumnus of Faculty of Economy, Udayana University performed a consecutive research to find out the weakness of his products. Other than incense stick, Made Dwija also produces beauty products like hair cream, shampoo, bathing scrub and essential oil for relaxation. Likewise, he has an aspiration that in relatively short time the father of three children will expand the range of his product to medicine made of spices to cure a number of diseases. Prior to deeply involving in this tempting business, the owner of a shop at Jalan Salya whose hobby is to conduct research and has once worked as computer instructor, banker and even journalist. Such jobs have been run till he found a fit domain on learning about Ayur Veda that led him to deeply engage in this business since 2002 up to these days. Assisted by nine employees, he is liable to produce 200 packages (2000 sticks of incense) per day. Demand of this product is relatively constant, even by particular holidays like the Galungan and Kuningan it definitely boosts. (BTN/Rai)

Miss Maria Sinaga
Concern for Fellow Human

Her energetic and attractive looks, together with her amicableness and open-mindedness makes this woman pleasant to talk with. Occasionally, one may not think that she is the General Manager of the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel. A woman who once occupied several positions in the environs of PT HII, prior to filling in the position of General Manager at Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel, she had the same position at Inna Natour Kuta Hotel. This position was held by a woman named Miss Maria Sinaga and it constitutes a rare achievement attained by an Indonesian woman. Because this position is normally only occupied by men. Apart from these outstanding achievements, Miss Maria Sinaga also praiseworthy cares for her fellow humans. This perspective is expressed when she accompanies the repeat guests of Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel of Bali Care Foundation group from Perth, Australia to Seraya Village, Karangasem, Wednesday (15/3). "Why are there still miserable communities like this?" she asks herself as if she was surprised at the contradictory condition to boisterousness and delicacy of ‘tourism cake’ savoured by other regions in Bali. This experience also inspires her to increasingly encourage her concern with the fellows. Similarly, she’d like to be able to dedicate her time and energy to make a visit and lend a hand to other communities in need in Bali. "Hopefully, should there be any fund we’ll assuredly continue to help them," she remarks when she joined the group to distribute foodstuff to the indigent community at Seraya Village. (BTN/tar)

Kadek Suwarteja
The New Resort & Sales Manager

A large hotel drains so much of your energy and mind, while a small property does maximally 30% of that energy and mind," says Kadek Suwarteja, when being asked about the reason why he prefers to work at a small property. This man has joined the Sri Phala Resort & Villa Sanur as the Resort & Sales Manager since December 2005. This property has 18 superb villas. On paying a visit to Bali Travel News, last Thursday (23/3), he added that working at small property means foe him staying away from stress. "Our presence here today is to introduce ourselves and also to promote our newly workplace," he says while being accompanied by his colleague, Aksara, the Operation Manager of Treasure Island Bali that operates under the same holding company as Sri Phala Resort and Villa, Sanur. His capacity in the tourism domain is not to be worried about. Prior to joining the Sri Phala Resort and Villa, this friendly and smiley man once worked at the Bali Cliff Resort in Sales and Marketing, at the Jatra Bali Hotel as Front Office Manager and the Ramada Tanjung Benoa Resort as Front Office Manager. According to him, the impact of Bali Bomb II causes great suffering, so it has a strong effect on the decrease of hotel room occupancy. "Thanks God, the government has cancelled the rising of electricity tariff so the expense of our hotel operational cost does not increase in the midst of small number of guest visit," he explained. He also revealed that his villa resort now reaches an occupancy of averagely 70% to 80%. "Being the new Resort & Sales Manager, we thoroughly find out new breakthroughs on every occasion to boost the hotel occupancy," observes the graduate of Diploma IV of Tourism, Udayana University. His tip and trick is to synergize the marketing with the maintenance of guests. "It means that the hotel is marketed through several channels, like agents and online system. We do not only put targets at overseas markets, but also at multinational companies operating in Indonesia such as Newmont, the US leading mining company that has become our regular customer," explains this modest man. Europe, Japan and domestic (Jakarta) are dominant market segments of the Sri Phala Resort & Villa, Sanur. "Most of the time, they are repeater guests and stay for long period," he says. (BTN/Para)