Published on August 17, 2014
Tomini Bay, which uniquely borders and encompasses three provinces, namely North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, and Gorontalo, will be highlighted with festivities as the Tomini Bay Festival 2014 is set to be staged from 10th to 13th September 2014. This year, the festival will be centered at the Parigi Moutong Regency in the province of Central Sulawesi.
The festival forms part of the series of events to commemorate the Nusantara Archipelago Day which is centeredd at the Kotabaru Regency on the neighboring island in the South Kalimantan Province. The series of events held in conjunction with the Nusantara Archipelago Day focuses chiefly on marine activities and is aimed to raise awareness and efforts to improve and sustain marine environments and cultures of the vast Indonesian islands. The event is, moreover, intended to boost marine development, increase the welfare of coastal communities, perform public social services, and strengthen the role of Indonesia’s marine human resources.
The Tomini Bay festival is expected to further develop the marine and fishery sector in and around
this large Tomini Bay based on the concept of the Blue Economy. Through such concept, it is projected that here marine and fishery commodities will increase in both quality as well as sustainability.
Strategically located in the “heart of the Coral Triangle”, Tomini Bay has an abundance of marine potentials. The ecosystem in Tomini Bay is among the 26 most prominent sea environments in the Indonesia archipelago, which makes it an important location to develop our marine economy as well as marine tourism activities.
With its abundant potentials, Tomini Bay is planned to be developed into a prime tourist destination in Indonesia. Covering a total area of 6 million hectares in three provinces, the Tomini Bay is one of the largest Bays in Indonesia and possessess rich natural resources. The area is estimated to be home to no less than 1,031 hectares of coral reefs , besides 78,510 hectares swathes of mangrove forests. Through this festival, these potentials are expected to be unveiled to the rest of the world.