Bali Tourism News

‘City of Angels, Plains of Dust’ an Exhibition by Bali-based Photographer Rio Helmi at Jenggala Gallery June 15 – September 7, 2007.

Bali-based Indonesian photographer Rio Helmi is the son of an Indonesian diplomat and a Turkish mother who, in the course of his Father’s various postings abroad, has lived in Switzerland, Australia and Germany. Infected with wanderlust from his earliest years, Rio has traveled extensively across the world, including a year on a religious sojourn in India before returning to Indonesia and embarking on a career as a professional photographer in Bali in 1978.

Thirty years later, Rio Helmi is one of Asia’s leading photographers with his work featured in numerous books and publications. His photography has been exhibited in Jakarta, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sydney and from his own gallery in Bali.

City of Angels, Plains of Dust

From June 15, 2007 through September 7, 2007, Jenggala Gallery at the Jenggala Ceramics Studio will feature a solo exhibition of photos by Rio Helmi - “City of Angels, Plains of Dust.”

The images presented were captured while Helmi was on assignment in Thailand for a project dubbed “9 Days in the Kingdom.” Organized by Editions Didier Millet, some 50 of the world’s leading photographers were brought to the Kingdom to capture nine days in the life of that Country from the perspective of different photographers assigned to different locales.

Helmi’s assignment was in Isaan, an extremely poor corner of Thailand. Dry and arid, Isaan is in stark contrast to the Thai nation’s vibrant and colorful capital of Bangkok.

Helmi’s images from Isaan include throbbing discos in the town’s two lonely “high rises,” cartloads of fried insects awaiting diners in the night market, lines of begging monks threading their way silently through the local streets, high incidences of foreign men with local wives, new Japanese luxury cars, sprawling garbage recycling dumps – all existing amidst fields of dusty crops, emaciated cows, endless sugarcane fields and poor farmers scratching what they can out of the recalcitrant earth.

During the final days of his Thailand assignment Helmi hopped a flight to neighbor Angkor and Siam Reap in Cambodia where, according to the photographer: “all the glory and bustle of the past lies in dust and ruins, a reminder of our mortality. Being there put my whirlwind trip through Thailand into perspective.”

“City of Angels, Plains of Dusts” - an exhibition of photographs by Rio Helmi is open daily from June 15 though September 7, 2007 at the Jenggala Gallery at Jalan Uluwatu in Jimbaran. For more information telephone ++62-(0)361-703311.

Bali Discovery Tours

Add comment June 25th, 2007

Nationwide Tourism Arrivals are Up; But are They Strong Enough to Reach 6 Million Arrival Target for 2007?

The prestigious Indonesian Digest published by Wuryastuti Sunario from Jakarta reports:

“During the first four months of 2007, from January through April, Indonesia received 1.37 million tourists through 15 gateways, or up a significant 12.78% compared to the same period last year, said Rusman Heriawan, Head of the National Statistical Bureau, reported Bisnis Indonesia.

Best performance was turned in by Bali. The island received a total of 472,082 visitors, up a hefty 38.38% when compared to the first four months last year, reported balidiscovery.com. In April, 131,034 tourists came to Indonesia through Bali, 98,101 through Jakarta, and 85,951 through Batam.

Although arrival figures are on the increase nation-wide, averaging 300,000 visitors per month, this will bring total arrivals this year to around 4.2 million, still far below the national target of 6 million for 2007. To reach the expected target, Indonesia must receive an average 500,000 tourists per month, said Ben Sukma, Chairman of the Association of the Indonesia Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA).

Despite the fact that arrivals from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China are recovering, Indonesia’s important markets from Europe and Australia are still lagging behind. The Europe market that used to make Indonesia one of its more popular holiday destinations has dropped after Garuda Indonesia stopped flying to Europe.

The drop in the number of European tourists who used to stay in Indonesia for two months, visiting many off-the-beaten track destinations, have caused tourism in many regions to suffer greatly during the past years. The resort areas include the Toraja highlands of South Sulawesi, North Sumatra’s Lake Toba region, Nias Island, Lombok and East Nusatenggara, the Moluccas and Papua. While the trans-Java overland tour, once popular with European tourists, that included visits to Bandung, Wonosobo, Yogyakarta, Solo, Malang and on to Bali have also dropped due to a lack of participants.”

Bali Discovery Tours

Add comment June 25th, 2007