Nusa Dua, Bali (Antara Bali) - The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Forum has urged businessmen engaged in the tourism industry, governments, and NGOs to apply a sustainable maritime tourism standard in a bid to conserve the nature.
"This forum themed 'sustainable tourism' aims to encourage the sustainable development of tourism. It means that tourist destinations must also be conserved," Director General of Small Islands, Coastal Areas, and Maritime Affairs Sudirman Saad of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry stated here on Thursday after attending the Regional Business Forum of the CTI.
The Indonesian government is committed to conserving 20 million hectares of marine area and mapping marine utilization zones, he affirmed.
"So far, some 16.5 million hectares of marine area has been conserved, and utilization zones have been demarcated such as for tourist destinations and water spatial areas," he noted.
The forum discussed the public's participation in realizing sustainable marine development.
"We offer them training courses and empower the local community, so that they would not merely become an audience," he emphasized.
The application of a sustainable tourism standard is crucial as maritime tourism is considered the largest industry in the world and has become the fastest-growing economic sector.
Indonesia has set a target of attracting 20 million foreign tourists by 2020, and 30 percent of them are visiting for marine tourism, or an increase of 15 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Indonesia.
A sustainable maritime tourism standard is also needed to prevent the negative impacts of major mobilizations of people engaged in tourism activities.
The CTI forum was attended by government officials and NGO activists from six CTI member nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, PNG, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste.
The CTI area is the world's marine biodiversity center, with more than two thousand species of coral fish and 600 species of coral reefs living in the area.
Data provided by the World Travel and Tourism Council revealed that the travel and tourism industry significantly contributed US$58 billion to the domestic products to the CTI member countries and provided job opportunities to at least 5 million people in 2014. (WDY)
