Promoting Bali’s art’s, culture and customs under student exchange programs with other countries is more effective than most conventional means, a local tourism worker said.
Promoting Bali’s tourism through international student exchange programs is not only much less costly but also more effective, Kawiana Made, a tourist guide, said.
He said youths who had joined the Indonesian National Committee of Indonesian Youth (KNPI) in Klungkung district are promoting their region by holding a foreign student exchange program with other countries at Udayana University’s Faculty of Letters.
The student exchange programs are part on the Bali International Program for Asian Studies (BIPAS) initiated in 2009 in which many foreign students take part, among others from Germany, China, Finland,Denmark and Switzerland.
Meanwhile, the secretary of KNPI’s Klungkung branch, Wayan Buda Parwata, said while in Bali the foreign youths were invited to witness the local people’s activity such as palm sugar making, local teenagers painting on canvas in Kamasan village.
Pantings made in Klungkung’s Kamasan Village have distinctive traditional patterns wellknown for a long time among art lovers in Indonesia and foreign countries.
On their visit to Klungkung, 40 km east of Denpasar, the foreign students were guided by Made rajeg, a lecturer at Udayana University’s Faculty of Letters. They were also invited to see some tourism objects at Pura Goa Lawah, and a handicraft weaving activity in Sampalan Village.
Made Rajeg said the student exchange program was more effective in promoting Balinese tourism than the usual promotions carried out in the market countries, on the ground that students who come here could tell about their experience in the “Island of Gods’ after they return to their home countries.
Moreover, during foreign student activities in Klungkung, they were also invited to attend work shops discussing Balinese culture such as customary clothing and Balinese ‘Gamelan’ (traditional percussion music).
The participants of the student exchage programs always seemed very enthusiastic, he said.

News by International Bali Post

Related Content

Subscribe to the post comments feeds or Leave a trackback