BANYUWANGI – The Banyuwangi Festival tourist agenda won the TOP award 45 Public Service Innovation from the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform. The award presentation ceremony took place at the Vice President's Palace, Tuesday (15/10/2019).
Reported from banyuwangikab.go.id, vice-regent (Vice Regent) Banyuwangi Yusuf Widyatmoko expressed his gratitude to the central government because the innovation in the tourism sector rolled out by Banyuwangi was selected as TOP 45 Innovation from 3.156 innovations that come from all over Indonesia.
“We express our gratitude to the central government for giving its appreciation to the Banyuwangi Festival,” said Deputy Regent Yusuf.
“This award is the result of the hard work and creativity of all Banyuwangi residents who have worked together to organize various Banyuwangi Festival events.,” he added.
Banyuwangi Festival is a large umbrella for a series of regional tourism events throughout the year. Every year, Banyuwangi Festival presents a variety of arts and culture attractions, natural charm, sport tourism, to inspiring local traditions. Don't miss events that foster social empathy.
“The events designed in the Banyuwangi Festival are not just a means of attracting tourists, but also as a way for Banyuwangi to advance its regional potential and culture,” said Deputy Regent Yusuf.
On 2012 Banyuwangi Festival has just had 10 even, increased in 2013 Becomes 15 event, 2014 with 23 event, 2015 (36 event), 2017 (72 event), 2018 (77 event) and 2019 increased to 99 event.
Meanwhile, Separately, Banyuwangi Regent Abdullah Azwar Anas added, The Banyuwangi Festival is held not just as a tourist agenda, However, this is Banyuwangi's way of consolidating in the cultural sector, infrastructure, society and economy.
“The various B-Fest events that we hold are carried out by SKPD in Banyuwangi collaboratively with the community. Bureaucrat, public, The private sector and the Indonesian National Police are involved in every implementation. Indirectly, we ended up working together to make the event a success and this became strong social capital for Banyuwangi,” said Regent Anas.
The Banyuwangi Festival is also an event for consolidating regional infrastructure. For example, during the Tour de Banyuwangi Ijen International bicycle race (ITDBI). Where the racers take a route around 600 KM for four days touring all the streets of Banyuwangi.
“This bicycle race requires the road to be flat when the racer passes, which indirectly forces us to consolidate physical infrastructure,” said Regent Anas.
“We got many good and useful things from working on the B-Fest event. Our culture also continues to grow and be maintained because more than half are traditional and cultural events,” added.
Meanwhile on the community side, Tourism has been proven to have a positive economic impact. On 2010, The annual per capita income of Banyuwangi residents is only Rp 20 million. On 2018, the figure rose drastically to Rp 48 million. There were only foreign tourist visits ten years ago 12.500 person, now in a year, Banyuwangi is visited at least 127.000 foreign tourists.
“In the end, all Banyuwangi Festival events have the main aim of stimulating the people's economy. The district government has also created a Banyuwangi Festival Regional Regulation to ensure the sustainability of all these good things in the future,” he concluded.
The Banyuwangi Regency Government over the last nine years has also received appreciation in the form of special allocation funds from the central government worth Rp 81 billion. All funds are used to encourage various activities to maintain and develop tourism.
