Indonesia beyond Bali: the tourism development plans to create new hubs and diversify the economy

Key to ambitious ‘10 new Balis’ plans is to upgrade provincial airports and improve access to outlying destinations like Lake Toba, Borobudur and Prambanan

Muslim tourists, including from the Middle East, will be targeted for some of the more conservative areas

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F11G0T Spires on Temple of Borobudur at sunset, Borobudur, Indonesia

Published: 12:30pm, 15 Aug 2019Updated: 1:18pm, 15 Aug 2019

Hundreds of tourists, many of them young Westerners, sat on grey stone steps atop the world’s largest Buddhist temple, occasionally checking cellphones or whispering to each other as they waited for daylight.

Sunrise wasn’t spectacular on that recent summer day. But even an ordinary dawn at Borobudur Temple – nine stone tiers stacked like a wedding cake and adorned with hundreds of Buddha statues and relief panels – provided a memorable experience.

The ninth-century temple is in the centre of Indonesia’s Java island, a densely populated region with stunning vistas. Other highlights include the towering Hindu temple complex of Prambanan – a Unesco World Heritage Site like Borobudur – and Mount Merapi, the country’s most active volcano, whose lava-covered slopes are accessible by jeep.

While the two temples draw many visitors, other foreigners head to the relaxing beaches of Bali, just east of Java and by far the most popular tourist destination in a nation of thousands of islands and almost 270 million people. More than six million tourists visited Bali last year, or about 40 per cent of 15.8 million visitors to Indonesia overall, according to official figures.

Mount Merapi in Central Java is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. Photo: James Wendlinger

Recently re-elected President Joko Widodo wants to change this dynamic by pushing ahead with “10 new Balis”, an ambitious plan to boost tourism and diversify Southeast Asia’s largest economy.