Indonesia has won awards in three out of the six categories of the ASEAN Tourism Awards (ASEANTA) 2016 at an event held in Manila, the Philippines, a minister said.
“Wonderful Indonesia” won awards in three of the six categories of the ASEAN Awards, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in a press statement on Friday.
“We have beaten some competing countries, including Malaysia,” Arief Yahya said.
The three awards were in the categories of the Best ASEAN Tourism Photo, the Best ASEAN Cultural Preservation Effort, and the Best ASEAN Travel Article.
“Morning in Bromo” by Agung Parameswara grabbed the award in the Best ASEAN Tourism Photo category.
“Mang Udjo,” the Angklung bamboo musical instrument center in Bandung, Indonesia, was the winner of the Best ASEAN Cultural Preservation Effort category.
And for the Best ASEAN Travel Article category, the winner was “The Perfect Wave,” published in Garuda Indonesia Color Magazine.
“Meanwhile, Malaysia won two awards and Singapore only one award,” the minister said.
Minister Arief Yahya was in Manila to attend the 35th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), held from January 18 to 22, 2016.
The ASEAN Tourism Forum is very strategic to Indonesia because the ASEAN market is the largest contributor to tourist arrivals, he noted.
In the ATF held in Manila, tourism ministers from all ten member countries of ASEAN – Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos participated.
He believed that the ASEANTA Awards would help promote Indonesian tourist destinations internationally.
The three other ASEAN Award categories were the Best ASEAN Marketing and Promotion Campaign, the Best ASEAN New Tourism Attraction, and the Best ASEAN Airline Program.
Filipino President Benigno S. Aquino III spoke before the ASEAN tourism ministers on Wednesday.
He said that the number of tourist arrivals in ASEAN reached 105.1 million in 2014, a staggering 42.4 percent increase from 73.8 million tourist arrivals in 2010.
Of those 105.1 million visitors, he said, 49.22 million came from within the ASEAN itself.
“We belong to a region that holds vast potential in terms of tourism,” President Benigno was quoted as saying by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).