Fealac plays significant role in promoting ecotourism: official

FEALAC (Forum for East Asia and Latin America Cooperation) plays a significant role in promoting ecotourism internationally, an Indonesian tourism official said.

"The Forum which has 33 member countries including Indonesia, has a total population of 2.5 billion, which is huge potential in tourism if the peoples visit each others` countries," Firmansyah Rahim, the Indonesian cultural and tourism ministry`s director general for tourism destination development, said in Sanur, Bali Province, on Thursday.

After officially opening the FEALAC Conference on Ecotourism, he told the press that ecotourism promotion was expected to help increase the number of tourists visiting FEALAC member countries.

Indonesia has developed ecotourism destinations in Bali, West Nusa Tenggara Province and other regions which have national parks, according to him.

Ecotourism was educational and would encourage local residents as well as visiting tourists to help protect the environment, he said.

FEALAC is ...