6th ITC (Indian Tourism Congress) Bali, Indonesia 2014 : A report

Dr Meinam Binota *

At the 6th International Tourism Congress at Bali in Indonesia from June 21 to 24 2014 :: Pix - HL

It was a treasurable journey of 8 hours flying over the Indian Ocean from IGI Airport, New Delhi to Bali, (Indonesia) via Kualalumpur. The fatiguing journey of 8 long hours was made unforgettable by the smiling girls studying at Bali Tourism Institute when they received us at Angkasapura Airport, Denpasar, Bali with "khagi-leihao" garlands.

Indian Tourism Congress (ITC), a non-profit organization under Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has invited several academicians from all over the country to attend the 6th International Convention of ITC at Bali, Indonesia, specially from NE India. It is because of the fact that the New Central Government has given more emphasis to the NE region of India particularly Manipur on tourism sector.

The ITC in tune with Central government priority has invited Prof. N. Lokendra Singh, Registrar, Manipur University and Prof. E. Bijoykumar Singh, Dean of Social Sciences, Manipur University to be the Chairperson and Moderator at different technical sessions of the convention. Prof. Rajendra Kshetri of Nagaland University has been invited to deliver the Key Note address of the first session and to be the Chairperson of the same technical session.

Prof. Rajendra has delivered the key lecture on "Good Governance and Tourism Development" citing the example of Gujarat model of Tourism Development – The Modi Model. He stressed the indispensability of good governance terming it as a sine-qua-non of tourism development. Prof. Bijoykumar in his speech as moderator of the Technical Session IV underlined the importance of tourism describing it as the new driver of economic development in any economy.

Prof. Lokendra in his capacity as chairperson has given an overall but insightful observations on the strategic interventions in regional perspectives of different issues, lessons and ideas of tourism development. It was something of a delightful surprise that the last session of the convention was fully focused on NE tourism development strategies.

Many academicians and resource persons from different universities have suggested various ways out of backlog for the NE region in the process of tourism development. The CEO of YES BANK, India, Tusser Pandey has ensured to extend maximum help and requirement toward the tourism development in the NE region.

Drs. Dewa Gede Ngurah Baymantra, Director, Bali Tourism Institute, Republic of Indonesia expressed his strong desire of having academic collaboration with Manipur University to promote the tourism sector and has also expressed the curiosity to examine the social cultural and emotional ties of the Indonesian and NE region people. Very interestingly he recalled and expressed the striking similarities between the intricate handloom designs of NE region, say, our "Phanek Mapan Naibi" and their "sarong" (below waist wear of Indonesian women).

In different technical sessions of the convention, five research papers from Manipur were presented. The age old concept of "Pukreila: A Driving Force of Community Based Tourism Initiatives" for Naga society had been introduced to the world by Lucy Jajo, D.M. College of Arts and Dr Ninghoula Zimick, Principal, Pettigrew college at the convention. Dr R.K. Tamphasana of G.P. Women's college presented a research paper on "Community Based Eco-Village Tourism in Manipur Hills".

Dr Th. Umavati Devi, G.P. Women's College, also presented a research paper on "Cultural Tourism Development in Manipur" highlighting different tourist destinations of the state. Dr Meinam Binota, Imphal college delivered a key lecture on "Economics and Tourism" by examining the applications of "Critical Minimum Effort Theory" of Harvey Leibenslin's economic model in tourism development. She has also given the vote of thanks on behalf of Indian Tourism Congress. It was an immense pleasure for the NE region representatives.

Bali province may be termed as a small Hindustan of Indonesia and presents a unique synthetic civilization of Aryan and Mongoloid cultures. Most of the Balinese still maintained the maximum culture of Mongoloids in respect of social-cultural habits in terms of fooding, dress, dance, music etc. Our popular cuisine - Kangsoi, Morokmetpa, Kangsoo, Champhut etc are still available in many hotels and restaurants.

All Balinese women wear 'Sarong' (phanek) and men wear 'Khudei' in the same fashion as Meeteis, Nagas and particularly Maring tribes. Every household have a small temple at the corner of house. Before starting any household/commercial unit's activities they prayed God and offers flowers, fruits on the top of banana leafs (handmade design of their choice).

The utility of banana leaf is made into great use by the Balinese people; at the time of serving food or prayer to God as we do in Manipur. The overall dress design for men wear gives a look of resemblance with Maring Naga community of Manipur (particularly head wears). The skill of bamboo-handicraft of Maring Naga is quite similar with Balinese bamboo crafts.

Bamboo has great importance for the Balinese people. The bamboo leafs are used in making various designs of household uses. Everybody in Bali makes various artistic designs out of banana leaf and bamboo leaf for different uses. Surprisingly, the use of 'Dona' (the bowl made by banana leaf which is used in our Utsav) is commonly found in most of the hotels and restaurants.

Stone and wood carving is the main occupation of rural Bali since 1990 (before the transformation into rural tourism in Bali most of the Balinese were fishing community). They export high rate of these stone and wood crafts to all over the world. Stone and wood crafts, sea beauties and their dedicated hospitality are the main tourist products of Bali.

The sanguine beauties of sea beaches and resorts are all major attractions of Bali tourism sector. A well defined road and transport system, tourist friendly governance, uninterrupted power supply gives a profound and unmatched attraction to foreign tourists. A Twenty four hour good security facility is a plus point of Bali tourism sector.

Home-stayed tourism facilities, neat and cleanliness are well advanced in Bali. Australians, British, Chinese, Japanese and Indians are the main tourists in Bali. Indonesian government has given maximum education infrastructure on tourism sector. Most of the service providers in different stake holders are well trained students from Bali Tourism Institute, Centre of Excellence.

Historically, the embryo of Bali tourism Institute was established in 1978, afterward in 1982 it was upgraded to an equal status of university based on Presidential Decree No. 102 dated 1st November, 1993. At present it is called 'Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Nusa Dua Bali" which has been reliable benchmark education institution in the determination of its quality and resources with three major pillars i.e. hospitality, tourism and travel.

With the aspiration to prominence as the premier educational and training institute, Bali Tourism Institute stands strong among its competitors to develop sustainable and consistent quality of education with highly competent graduates who acquire first rate professional skills, creativity and innovative outlook. The commitment to tourism research is rigorous.

The research centre wing provides service training programme and consultancy services for government and tourism industries to improve the quality level of their tourism promotion services and managerial skills. Government has strongly encouraged for establishing sustainable and rigorous research along with the effects to contribute and share ideas positively for the need of community service and development.

What lesson(s) can we in and from Manipur learn? What ideas can we bring home from the Bali experiences of tourism? Lessons are aplenty. Ideas abound. First and foremost, among others, from an administrative perspective is to provide good governance and community's involvement/willingness to bring a change in the society and economy. More to the point and what is immediately required, from an academic perspective, is to establish/set up a tourism institute/centre in Manipur.

It is in this kind of the given global scenario and right juncture that Manipur University must and should take the leading and pivotal role. In the North East region of seven states, Tejpur University at Tejpur, Assam, Rajiv Gandhi University at Arunachal Pradesh, University of Sikkim at Sikkim and NEHU at Meghalaya have already taken the initiatives. Only the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura are still in the pre-take off stage. Let us have a wake-up call.