EAST BELITUNG - Supporting the development of marine tourism in East Belitung, PT Timah Tbk is also supporting the activities of the East Belitung maritime festival Contest for Kater, at Serdang Beach, Baru Village, Manggar District, Bangka Belitung Islands Province.
A total of 21 traditional kater participated in the kater competition. They appeared and attracted visitors' attention to Serdang Beach, Saturday (12/08/2023).
The activity carried out by the East Belitung Regency Politics and National Unity Agency had a significant impact on efforts to preserve traditional kater, thus attracting tourists to visit East Belitung.
Head of East Belitung Kesbangpol Yusmawandi said that the idea for the kater festival saw the interest of visitors coming to Serdang Beach.
Then, coordinate with the Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis) to promote beach tourism through the kater festival.
"Pokdarwis agreed, so we started by cleaning up the beach," said Yusmawandi.
According to him, based on the results of their evaluation this activity will be carried out regularly.
"If there are 100 kater, it's extraordinary and it will be done routinely, it will be better," he explained.
Yusmawandi also appreciates PT Timah Tbk's support in the kater festival, because without PT Timah Tbk's support, it would be difficult to implement it.
"Alhamdulillah, PT Timah Tbk has received support for operational implementation in the field," he explained.
Therefore, they hope that in the future PT Timah Tbk will continue to support similar events, even becoming the sole sponsor so that it will not only be a catering competition later. The reason is, this kind of activity greatly impacts the progress of tourism from the maritime sector.
"East Belitung has a lot of potential, so this marine tourism must be promoted," he said.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of Pokdarwis Serdang Berantai Toto Iswanto said that the community really missed the catering competition event. Because it has been a very long time since there was such an event on Serdang Beach.
"Thank God, even though it was sudden, there were still participants who took part in the kater competition," said Toto Iswanto.
According to Toto, the kater boat is well known outside Belitung Island with the identity of having a sail, whereas daily the kater boat is used to go out to sea using only an engine.
So, one of the efforts to maintain the sailing culture, one of which is competition events like that and fishermen making sails is not in vain.
"This event is the only post-pandemic event in Serdang Beach, and it's quite big," he explained.
Therefore, the community automatically misses this event, because from early in the morning there are already a lot of people watching and filling the coast of Serdang.
"So for the tourism effect there are very many visits today," he explained.
Then Toto invited PT Timah Tbk to hold the event regularly because the impact on tourism development was very evident in this event.
What's more, if this event has been scheduled in advance, you can be sure that tourists from outside Belitung Island can enjoy it too.
"We have to routine this kind of event and we can enter the event calendar later," he said.
