Gde Pitana
Criticize Journalists

Stagnant condition of Bali tourism appeals for a variety of parties to find out its solution to improve its image. Without exception for mr. Gde Pitana, the Division Head of the Centre for Tourism Research and Development, Department for Culture and Tourism. He expects that all parties, not only its tourism components but also general public, straightforwardly should hold up one another and get involved.
This professor in tourism studies at the Udayana University also underlines the importance of the press’s role in recovering the image of Bali tourism, as the press is considered the front-runner in delivering accurate and reliable information to travellers.
“Journalists should be more judicious in reporting something. At times, something published may even aggravate the image of tourism in Bali,” he says on responding the widespread topic that ‘more’ exploit on the violence such as rape, robbery, riots, demonstration and some others inflicting in negative image towards the condition of Indonesia and particularly Bali.
“Whereas the positive things are much more and occur more extensively than the negative ones happening in smaller scale and merely at certain point of location,” he adds. (BTN/tar)

Jero Wacik
Recall His Childhood

Though he is now the Indonesian Minster for Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik seems not to forget his childhood at Pajahan Village, Pupuan, Tabanan. To recall this, last Saturday (15/4) Jero Wacik, together with his wife and family, went back home to Pajahan village.
On that occasion, Jero Wacik and his wife Mrs. Tresna Jero Wacik and four children held a face-to-face encounter at the local village meeting hall. He still remembered some villagers from the time that as a child he was helping his parents selling products in Pajahan. Although he is now a state official as the Minister for Culture and Tourism, he admits that he continues to remember his childhood at Pajahan.
At the same moment he gives the people advice and encourage them to achieve success in life. One of the advices being uttered is the most important principle within the lifetime namely how to become a good, well-mannered person and at all times to move at the right path. He also affirms that everybody should avoid three qualities such as laziness, inferior feeling and arrogance. And, he appeals the Balinese not to be easily provoked by negative issues, including thinking negatively that eventually results in being less acceptable to the life of Balinese community.
As a minister, he has a duty to execute the president’s mandate in order to have a commitment on three matters encompassing the education, health and matters pertaining towards manpower. Jero Wacik donated some textbooks and medicines to the villagers of Pajahan and at the same times observed closely the roving health services organized by Tabanan Government Health Services. Jero Wacik and family visited Pajahan village for two hours while recalling his memorable childhood. On the way to Denpasar, he made time to visit Belimbing village for having a coffee break.
In the meantime, the visit of Jero Wacik was used by the Tabanan Government Tourist Office to propose some regional programmes in effort to boost tourist visits during the Bali recovery period. (BTN/015)

Eugeen De Geest
Business and Deed

This Belgium citizen is the owner of Tamukami Hotel and Restaurant located at Jln. Danau Tamblingan Street 64X, Sanur. Before opening the Tamukami Hotel, he worked at several companies and also as a director in a machinery factory that produced materials for buildings. In 1998 he came to Bali to settle down here. Together with his foster daughter, he built and established Tamukami Hotel and Alise Restaurant.
“I chose Bali to built this hotel because I love this place with its unique culture and friendly people,” he said. In developing his business, the grandfather of two grandchildren explains that he has a simple marketing strategy that is by developing the quality of the product and also human resources. In order to develop the human resources of the hotel he created a course especially in languages, because most of our customers come from abroad, so they have to know more than basic languages (Indonesian and English). In addition, he also personally approach the costumers, so they feel like home in this hotel
The obsession of this man who was born in 1939 is that he wants to build another Tamukami Hotel with the same style and concept in another place. The Balinese architecture concept that belongs to Tamukami hotel is an unique one. When customers enter the room, they will feel like entering a Balinese house, so that is a plus point of the hotel. “I also want to make a clinic complete with emergency room in Sanur, so I can help the people of the Sanur area” utters the man who is fluent in seven languages.
The other selling point of this hotel is it cleanliness “ I’m really concerned about the rubbish, because rubbish can make visitors feel very uncomfortable. Therefore, in our hotel we made a system of selecting rubbish. Plastic, paper and bottle will be separated to difference garbage so it will be easier to recycle,” said Eugeen. He added that the rubbish problem in Bali needs more attention if compared with other countries like Thailand. It can be seen on the beach, where much rubbish lies scattered around and this panorama is very bad and negative to see. Perhaps this is the weakness of tourism in Bali.
His awareness to Bali is not only limited towards cleanliness, but also to Balinese people. Besides organizing his business, he also tent to help poor children to continue their education. Even Ni Nyoman Mudiasih, one of his foster children now is a Managing Director Tamukami Hotel. (BTN/Rai)