New Maritime Tourism Facility: Jakarta, West Java

By Barrie | September 10th, 2007 | No Comments

The city hopes its seafront areas will become tourism destinations as a private sector firm takes aim at establishing a maritime tourism facility at Sunda Kelapa port, North Jakarta.

“I hope this facility can attract international and domestic visitors, thereby increasing the city’s revenue. Serious attention to our seafront areas is crucial to developing Jakarta’s maritime tourism potential in 2008,” Governor Sutiyoso said as the article in the Jakarta Post explains.

Sutiyoso launched the colonial style Marina Batavia. The five-story building contains some 50,000 square meters of space, and its marina is able to accommodate 125 yachts.

The city, Sutiyoso said, must focus on providing and developing marine facilities professionally.

In collaboration with the private sector, the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and State Ministry for the Environment will hold an international exhibition next year to promote maritime travel and sports.

This year’s exhibition, Deep Indonesia 2007, was visited by about 7,000 people over the course of four days.

Sutiyoso said the city administration also needed to focus on cleaning garbage and industrial waste from coastal areas.

“Garbage has been our main problem for years. Ironically, there hasn’t been any effort from the (Sanitation) agency to resolve this matter.

“If this continues, it will affect maritime tourism,” he said.

Marina Batavia also provides facilities for visitors wishing to travel to Thousand Islands regency and the Old Town in West Jakarta.

“We have to promote this place so that it can attract tourists and become an interesting destination,” Sutiyoso said in his speech.
Ari Bastaman, a commissioner of PT Caputra, which built Marina Batavia, said he expected the establishment of the marine tourism facility by his company to inspire other firms to invest in the sector.

“What’s important is that we were willing to build this facility.

“This place had long been a critical area that was only used by Jakartans to dump garbage. But we made use of it,” he said.

The new facility has many facilities, including lounges, cafes, restaurants and meeting rooms, besides providing mooring services.

Ari said that many harbors in the city were neglected, while other maritime countries, such as Hong Kong, optimized their seafront areas by providing superb maritime tourism facilities.

“It’s a pity since our country is on the international sailing track.”