Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (Antaranews Kalsel) - Banjarmasin City Government will soon perform 36 tourism events to encourage regional economic growth.
"We will ramp up the tourism sector this year. A total of 36 tourism events are scheduled to be held," Head of the Banjarmasin Culture and Tourism Agency Ikhsan Alhaq said here on Wednesday.
According to him, of the 36 events, six were encouraged to become a national agenda, namely Banjarmasin Sasirangan Festival (BSF), Ramadhan Cake Fair, Tanglong Festival, Jukung Hias Festival, Martapura River Festival.
BSF, with a carnival of people wearing South Kalimantan a typical cloth ofsasirangan, to be performed in March.
"Then in Ramadhan (May 2019), there are culinary tours that we make as big as possible to be festive," he remarked.
The agency also scheduled a big event of the Tanglong (a kind of lantern) Festival, then a traditional boat of jukung performance on the river of Martapura and car parade with sparkling decorative lights.
"There is also the Martapura River Festival, because our regional tourism icon is the Martapura River," Ikhsan said.
According to him, to make all of these events to be national, the promotion will be carried out more intensively.
"Not only in the form of billboards and advertisements in mass media, but also social media, and promotions to other regions," he explained.
Ikhsan said, Banjarmasin tourism power is river based, because this area is known as the City of Thousand Rivers.
Therefore, he continued, river tourism, especially along the river siring (embankment) and river cruising, will be more promoted.
"Our tourism this year must run faster, thus the target of tourist arrivals can be achieved," he said, citing the target of arrival of 5,000 tourists, especially foreign tourists.
"If in 2017 it reaches 3,000 people, 2018 is still the same, this year we hope there will be more," he said.
