Jakarta (ANTARA) - Tourism Minister Arief Yahya and Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Minister AAGN Puspayoga officially opened the 14th edition of Sanur Village Festival (SVF) on Sanur Beach, Denpasar, Bali, held on August 21-25, 2019.

"Tourism in Sanur Bali has become a benchmark in community-based tourism development," Minister Yahya noted in a statement here on Thursday.

The 2019 SVF has become a trending topic on social media, and it features among the top 10 events on the national calendar, he pointed out.

Sanur Beach has also been designated as a location for sustainable tourism development, for which its tourism activities must be in line with the environmental preservation principles.

The tourism industry has generated foreign exchange earnings, reaching US$19 billion, of which 40 percent comes from Bali tourism.

Visitors to the 2019 SVF will be able to partake in a plethora of activities, including a culinary bazaar, creative economic exhibition, several contests and competitions, traditional arts and cultural performances, and other environment-friendly activities.

An international kite festival, coral reef planting, turtle release, beach clean-up, and mangrove planting are also organized to elicit involvement of the locals of Sanur and tourists.

The festival is projected to help boost tourist visits to the Sanur area, whose hotel room occupancy rate had reached 55 percent during the first semester of 2019.

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Translator: M Razi Rahman, Fardah
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019