Golf tournament effective for promoting tourism in Indonesia: executive

Prestigious golf tournaments are effective to promote tourism in Indonesia as they are widely covered by televisions and watched by millions of people worldwide, an executive told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Ben Sellenger, Chief Executive Officer of OneAsia, a tournament arranger for elite professional golfers across Asia Pacific, said that Indonesia's beauty and golf tournament is a right combination to promote the country's tourism.

"The capital city of Jakarta has many world-class golf courses and in the other side, Indonesia is a beautiful country. What we do here is to provide a great platform for promotion. And, this will provide wide coverage,"said Sellenger.

He said that good image of Indonesia will attract tourists and what the country needs is an efficient promotion.

Indeed, he said, people who watch golf tournaments directly will not be a lot.

"But that's not the main point. The point is that televisions across the world will cover the tournaments. Asian people love to watch golf. People from Singapore, Japan, China and South Korea watch golf tournaments in television. And that's not the only thing they air. Television will air the beauty of Indonesia also. Then, in holidays, Asian people will come here as tourists, not only to Jakarta but to other tourism destinations, spending money, that is good for the economy," he said.

He took an example of Indonesia Open, a golf tournament scheduled for July 1-4 in Jakarta that will be covered by OneAsia television network.

"With other OneAsia's tournaments this season, Indonesia Open will be aired live for four hours a day in its four day-tournament to more than 260 million of homes in 40 countries worldwide," he said.

Indonesia will hold a regional golf tournament of the Indonesia Open on July 1-4 with total prize of 1 million U.S. dollars.

The professional golf event is collaboration between the Enjoy Jakarta, a travel and tourism program of the capital city government of Jakarta, the Ministry for Culture and Tourism and OneAsia.