JAKARTA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- An official at Indonesia's tourism ministry said on Thursday that Bali would receive at least 1,500 Chinese tourists to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Indonesia's resort island next month.
Assistant Deputy Minister for Asia Pacific Marketing Development in the ministry Vincensius Jemadu said that confirmation on the upcoming visit of those Chinese tourists to Bali during the Chinese New Year in mid February was resulted from the recent Indonesia tourism minister's visit to China.
Jemadu added that the eagerness of Chinese tourists to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Bali was also highly contributed to the Chinese Consulate-General in Bali which has actively recommended Bali as the place to celebrate the Chinese New Year this year.
He said that Bali is now making preparations for the Chinese New Year celebration, which was slated to commence on February 15.
With generous assistance from the Chinese Consulate-General in Bali, the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration on the island would be featured by at least 20 performers from China plus several others from Indonesia, Jemadu said.
"We would also prepare gala dinner for those tourists during the event," Jemadu said in a statement.
Particularly to promote the Chinese New Year celebration in Bali, Jemadu said that the ministry has placed massive advertisements in various mainstream media as well as online media in China.
The ministry has also scheduled gatherings with representatives of Chinese travel agencies and media in China this month, among others in Beijing, Nanning and Guangzhou, to promote Indonesian tourism.
Meanwhile on a different occasion, Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that his ministry and the Chinese Consulate-General in Bali had also jointly held Chinese New Year celebrations in Bali last year.
The minister said that the Chinese New Year holiday season is a great momentum to tap more Chinese tourists to visit Indonesia. He added that China now has huge outbound tourist potentialities with more than 130 million tourists conducting outbound traveling each year.
The minister was scheduled to depart for China to meet officials from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) to strengthen further bilateral communication in the tourism sector after his current visit to Thailand's Chiang Mai to attend the ASEAN Tourism Forum.
