DENPASAR – Bali was finally chosen as a pilot project for Wellness Tourism in Indonesia as a whole. As a further step and starting point for a revival in the wellness field, the Indonesia Wellness Spa Professional Association (IWSPA) will highlight the ancestral heritage of various ethnic groups in Indonesia.
IWSPA with the Wellness & Healthcare Entrepreneur Association (WHEA), Indonesia Wellness Master Association (IWMA), and the Royal Archipelago Traditional Council (MAKN), plans to target 10 thousand therapists to be trained and certified in 2023. Meanwhile, together with the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA), there will also be an agenda for the Indonesia Wellness Tourism International Festival in 2023.
The Chairperson of WHEA, as well as the founder of IWASPA, WHEA, and IWMA, Agnes Lourda Hutagalung, said that to introduce this program the steps taken were to conduct massive training and certification for therapists in Bali. They are pilot projects to gain knowledge, understanding, abilities, and love for the Ethnowellness of the Archipelago.
This activity is planned to involve 10,000 therapists which will be held in 2023. It also aims to equip therapists with qualified abilities to take certification, considering that it has been 2 years of the pandemic so that the certificate held is estimated to be no longer valid.
This training program will use a specially designed and complete module and curriculum, which is claimed to be more complete than the various existing certifications.
In addition, it is also hoped that, with the support of 68 embassies around the world, wellness seekers will come to Bali to carry out training in the castle that has been prepared.
“Through Wellness, we want to plant the Red and White flag not only in Bali, but also internationally. One of the activities we will do is to sell Indonesian certificates in Europe,” he said at the Reborn Indonesia Wellness Spa Professional Association (IWSPA) event, on Friday (7/10/2022) at the Bali Provincial Tourism Office.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the IWSPA Reborn Committee, Achyaruddin Yusuf, said that his party wanted to revive the Ethnowellness of the Archipelago which had been initiated for more than 20 years in Bali. Moreover, Bali is considered as the locomotive of Indonesian tourism.
“We are the ones who say The Best of Spa in The World. But we don’t have an ethnic spa, native to Indonesia. In fact, the spirit developed by friends outside our country can be said to be from Indonesia,” he explained.
He revealed that it is estimated that there are dozens of ethnic spas belonging to Indonesia. However, empirically, there are still 15 health cultures that belong to Indonesian ancestors. Among them, Bali, Batak, Betawi, Minang, Sundanese, Semarang, Java, Madura, Ambon, Banjar, Dayak, Bugis, Minahasa, Papua, and Timor.
“Hopefully the Ethnowellness of this archipelago, we really reflect and pray. It can really become the new economic strength of the Indonesian nation in the cultural field,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, on the same occasion said that spas have become part of the ancestors of the Indonesian nation, for example boreh from Bali.
“How to get to spa therapy, because Bali is the best spa destination in the world,” he said.
In Bali, there are 969 spas, 471 tourist attractions (DTW), 238 tourist villages (DEWI), 3,233 restaurants, 5,494 hotels, and 299 water tours.
He also said that in the past 2.5 years, Bali’s economy has experienced a deep contraction. The tourism sector, which is 56 percent the mainstay of Bali’s economy, has been paralyzed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But now, Bali’s economy is slowly recovering after the government dared to take the decision to open Bali since March 7, 2022 and abolish quarantine travel requirements.
“Now the average number of foreign tourist visits per day is almost 9 thousand to 10 thousand per day. With 24 airlines,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the General Chair of IWSPA, Yulia Himawati, said that IWSPA will provide a curriculum for training in 2023 related to the Ethnowellness of the Archipelago. The curriculum includes everything from massage skills to knowledge of philosophy.
“So the therapist must understand and be able to convey true story telling to his clients. So that later domestic and foreign tourists will know that he chooses Ethnowellness,” he said. On the other hand, there is a target for Indonesia to issue a certificate of international competence for this wellness spa service itself, so IWSPA encourages Indonesia to strive to make a certificate for spawellness so that it can be accepted among the foreign community. “We will make certification internationally. Indonesia must struggle to make spa certificates,” he said.***
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