Some quick thoughts on the Indonesia Tourism “Ten New Balis” concept, with Lake Toba in mind. I reckon “North Sumatra: Stay another day” a far better approach.

Off the bat I've been vocal in saying I think the “New Bali” thing is dumb/unimaginative as, if for no other reason, when you hook something to an existing destination you have to take the baggage along with the good, and I’d hate to pay the AirAsia excess on Bali’s baggage!

Instead work regionally rather than highlighting just the one spot and you not only spread the wealth, but also, equally importantly, the IMPACT. So, ditch Toba as the anchor and instead worth with North Sumatra as the concept.

Look at Medan, a city I really enjoyed. Yes I get it if you have never been to Indonesia, the city can be a bit in your face. Parts, especially down south of the station around Tjong A Fie Mansion still has a bunch of interesting heritage building (yes, many dilapidated), so...

Paint a heritage walk on the footpath so people could explore under their own steam for a few hours. I contacted a food/heritage walk mob and never heard back, so I assume they are no longer operating, throw some cash at that.

The food. OMG the food scene is amazing, but short of asking friends, was difficult to find what was worth eating. Like a heritage walk, something based around this would be great. Prepare a “great eats” flyer with a cute map and perhaps three days of eating.

Need not be far flung spots, just stuff to get travellers out of their guesthouse, their comfort zone (and Tip Top) and into other locally run places. You don’t need to walk far in Medan to find good eats!

This kinda propaganda could be distributed to guesthouses and hotels and the entire programme would probably cost less than a single New Bali billboard. Every meal can be a vector to something else, which could, in turn, lead to an extra night in Medan.

Lastly and most importantly, they need to get this propaganda prepared be people who know what they are doing, as the maps I did find were pretty useless and tourist offices as a source of information was a very very dead end.

Medan is the gateway for many foreign travellers yet in all my time there I saw barely a handful—I see more at the cafe opposite my house in Bali! Work to get these people to stay longer, even just one more night, and that has to be a good thing.

“New Bali” benefits the usual vested interests who want to build cookie cutter mini hotels and other stuff like that, instead campaigns should be working to encourage longer stays and highlighting locally owned business, to really leverage the spend of budget travellers.

Give them the tools to push their money in the hands of Mom & Pop soto joints rather than Surabaya & Jakarta hotel developers—many want to do this, but lack the information to be able to do so. There are places to eat other than Merdeka Walk!

Lastly, as a travel publisher, yes this is also our responsibility (I’m working on it!), but tourism boards should be doing a far far far better job than they are.

That’s it!