Lampung to hold Krakatau Festival on Jan 22

The festival's agenda will include a visit to Mount Anak Krakatau, if possible.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDARLAMPUNG -- The Lampung provincial government will go ahead with holding the Krakatau Festival 2019 despite a tsunami that hit South Lampung and Banten on December 22, 2018. Krakatau Festival is a routine tourism event of Lampung Province, and it has been included in the national tourism calendar of events.

The festival's agenda will include a visit to Mount Anak Krakatau, which had erupted and triggered the tsunami that claimed the lives of at least 437 people in the provinces of Banten and Lampung. The visit will be coordinated with the local meteorology and geophysics office and the local natural resources conservation office to ensure that it is safe to be held on that day. If the two offices advice against doing so, the visit will be cancelled.

"The tsunami has affected the tourism industry in Lampung that has numerous scenic beaches and the Way Kambas National Park," Budiharto, head of the Lampung tourism office, stated here, recently.

To revive the province's tourism industry, Lampung has planned various activities, including a beach clean-up on Pahawang Island on January 10, 2019. Meanwhile, tourism in Banten Province has also been affected by the tsunami.

Eneng Nurcahyati, head of the Banten tourism office, stated that it will take a year for the tourism industry to revive. However, the province will intensify the recovery program, with the hopes of the tourism industry recovering in six months.

Several tourist destinations in Banten, such as Baduy, Old Banten, Sawarna Beach, Anyer, and Carita, are not affected by the tsunami, she pointed out.

"The Tourism Ministry will organize a coordinating meeting to discuss the tourism recovery program in the post tsunami in Anyer by inviting the governors of Banten and Lampung," she noted.

She called on stakeholders in the tourism industry to help promote tourism by organizing various events.

"In Bali, the recovery efforts took six months, but in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), its tourism recovered within three months only," she remarked.

Banten has been hit hard by the tsunami. Over 90 percent of the hotel bookings were canceled prior to New Year's Eve due to the deadly tsunami on December 22, 2018, she noted. Less than 10 percent, who retained their hotel bookings, were mainly journalists covering the post tsunami event, she remarked.

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