October 30th, 2011 by chris

Our group of 12 international travel agent representatives, a Bali tour operator, a representative of the Ministry for Tourism, three Flores tour operators and our Swisscontact WISATA team started from Maumere staying overnight at Sea World Club right on the beach after conducting hotel inspections at Wailiti and Silvia. On the next day we visited Dokar Village where we were warmly welcomed by the local community and observed many of their traditional performances, food and customs. From Dokar we than drove on to Koka Beach where we had a swim and picnic before having a coffee break at the Wolowaru cashewnut processing unit. We arrived in Moni in the late afternoon and the group stayed in the Eco Lodge, Flores Sare, Arwanty and Watugana with dinner served at Arwanty. Early morning at 4am we started the trek up to Kelimutu’s three crater lakes, where we had traditional coffe and our local tour operators explained the myth of the changing colors of the three volcano crater lakes. Afterwards we inspected Moni Eco Lodge, Floes Sare, Arwanty, Watugana and Bintang hotels, before we continued our trip to the traditional village Wologai. There we received a warm welcome and were invited in the traditional houses and took some scenic pictures. Our next stop was Ende, the capital of Ende district, were we had lunch and inspected Mentari, Grand Wisata, Dwi Putra and Safari hotels before we had dinner at the traditional Pangan Lokal Center with a reading of the old Lotar language. After breakfast we continued our journey to Boawae village in the Nagekeo district where the granddaughter of the last king explained us the traditional houses and customs before she joined us for our next destination Mbay and Riung. Mbay is the capital city of Nagekeo and a lyed back town, where we were met over a delicious lunch by the representatives of the local tourist management organization. A quick stop at the harbor and off we went to Riung nature conservation reserve the 17 islands. In Riung accommodation is still limited and we stayed at the SVD a catholic mission and at the Bintang Wisata hotel enjoying fresh fish soup and local dishes at Warung Murah Meriah. Our next stop was in Bajawa, the capital of Ngada, but on the way we stopped by at the Mangeruda hot springs to take some pictures and test the temperature with our feet. In Bajawa we inspected Silverine, Edelweiss and Happy-Happy hotels and had another perfect dinner, this time at Lukas restaurant. The next morning we drove towards Belaraghi village, from where we hiked 1.5 hours up to reach the traditional village where the welcome was just hartwarming and followed by many unforgettable moments of sharing and performances that included music and dance as well as a communal lunch feast. Leaving Belaraghi was probably one of the hardest moments of our journey so far. A stop at Mbalata beach and the inspection of Mblata Beach Cottage gave time for a relaxing swim after the hike to Belaraghi. Continuing to Borong the capital of East Manggarai we stayed at the Primadona hotel and had dinner at the Bougenville restaurant. Having a late start we arrived at Ranamese lake early and we used the time to hike around half of this scenic lake, which is part of  a nature conservation area. Back in Ruteng we had our lunch at Agape restaurant serving a variety of western and local dishes before we headed on to Liang Bua the site were archeologists discovered the Homus Florensis in 2003, which is still a topic hotly debated among archeologists. Returning to Ruteng we than inspected the Sindha, Susteran MBC and Maryo hotels as well as the cathedral built in 1930-35 by the Dutch. Over dinner representatives of the government tourism department as well as from the tourist management organisation gave an overview of the tourism objects in their district and the potentials and challanges. And so the journey continues…

April 20th, 2010 by chris

The Bali Photographer Club provided a training session for BEDO members on how to make good product pictures.

Many of BEDO’s members joined the training as well as a group of diffabled from YAKKUM (Foundation).

The meeting was held at Little Tree seminar room and was very interactive and informative.

April 15th, 2010 by chris

Focus Group Discussion with selected Bali and Lombok based tour operators on tour guide training programs for Flores.

March 26th, 2010 by chris

Meeting with Bali, Lombok and Sulawesi based tour operators selling and developing Flores tourism products.

Focus Group Discussion on Flores Branding, destination website development and the Flores positioning vision.

March 1st, 2010 by chris

Dissemination event for surveys conducted in December 2009 with Bali and Lombok based tour operators, visitors at Maumere and Labuan Bajo airports and hotels, restaurants, tour operators and tour guides in Flores.

Presentation to Bali, Lombok and Sulawesi tour operators selling and developing Flores tourism products.

January 15th, 2010 by chris

Presentation of results of survey conducted in December 2009 among Bali and Lombok based tour operators.

January 12th, 2010 by chris

Presentation on the WISATA project to government representative from the ministry of culture and tourism, the honorary consul of Switzerland, selected tour operators and NGOs.

December 21st, 2009 by chris

Tabanan, Bali, December 21, 2009 – Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia today completed the planting of 5, 000 trees in Bali, in line with the Bank’s commitment to support forest conservation programme in Indonesia.

Ceremonial planting at Tabanan site

The greening programmes worth of USD$ 20,000 which is conducted through a cooperation with an international environmental organization, PATT (Plant a Tree Today) Organization, include 4,000 trees planting in Tabanan and 1,000 trees in Sidemen, Bali. The 5,000 tree planting in Bali is the first phase held at the end of this year, and will continue with additional 3,000 trees in 2010 in other regions.

Also attending the tree planting ceremony in Bali are representatives of the PATT Organization, Friends of the National Parks Foundation / FNP, research and consulting firm Bali International Consulting Group, as well as community leaders and the surrounding community.

Head of Compliance and Assurance Standard Chartered Indonesia Chisca Mirawati said: “At Standard Chartered, we are committed to lead by example at various markets where we operate. Besides contributing to economic growth through main business activities, we also want to help preserve the environment and provide a broader impact to the communities where we operate. Planting trees in Bali is one of the real examples of our commitment, and also as a sign of our support for government programme one-man-one-tree. ”

“Environmental awareness campaign has been conducted continuously at various offices of Standard Chartered worldwide. Since 2007, Standard Chartered Group has a significant contribution to a greener environment by funding various projects of renewable energy and environmentally friendly technology with investments worth $ 3.2 million. In addition, between 2006 and 2008 we managed to reduce CO2 emissions by 14% per employee by reducing the number of paper usage, including energy-saving campaigns some time ago, “added Chisca.

In mid-2009 Standard Chartered Indonesia planted 2,000 trees in Mount Rinjani in collaboration with WWF Indonesia. In this programme, Standard Chartered involves its employees and customers by redeeming their credit card reward points for tree planting; and also from customers who are willing to convert their monthly credit card statement to paperless e-statement. Last year, Standard Chartered has also made peat land forest conservation in Kalimantan region including Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

November 30th, 2009 by chris

Our last BEDO meeting was on the 25th of November and we had around 50 participants.

Presentations and speakers are listed below.

The meeting was very well prepared and the quality of speakers and importance of the content was very positively regarded to by all participants.

This was the first meeting at Art Cafe in Seminyak and the venue was very nice and the Art Cafe team very helpful.

Special thanks to Dayu our secretary at BEDO.

See you all in our next meeting in January, for details please contact Dayu dayu(at)be-do.org

November 2nd, 2009 by chris

As of 1st of November I have been contracted by Swisscontact, an international NGO from Switzerland for a sustainable tourism development project for the island of Flores. The project is funded by SECO, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs for a period of four years.

Our pro poor approach will be focused on a multi stakeholder facilitation establishing DMOs (Destination Management Organizations) and the strengthening of tourism sector SMEs and district/regional governments.

For questions related to this project you can contact me on christian(dot)fritz72(at)gmail.com