“Labuanbajo city [capital of West Manggarai regency], which has just been included in the World New Seven Wonders, is plagued by a water scarcity. I myself have been forced to dig my own well. Other people in Labuanbajo also depend on wells for clean water,” Zakarias Samuel Sem, the Swisscontact development manager for the western part of Flores, said on Friday.

Swisscontact, an NGO, actively helps promote tourism development in Flores.

Samuel urged all stakeholders in Flores to jointly cooperate to resolve the water scarcity problem on the island, especially in tourism areas.

Almost all of the eight regencies of the Flores island chain are rich in culture, nature and marine wildlife.

“Tourism in Flores has become a gold mine for the development of tourism at the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry,” Danang Rahardian, a ministry staffer, said.

He said that the development of the tourism industry in Flores had been jointly conducted by the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry and the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.

“The Flores chapters of the Tourism Management Organization [TMO] and Destination Managemen Organization [DMO] have to be on the ball to fulfill the tourism potential in Flores,” he said.

Rahardian further said that his ministry would arrange various activities in Flores next year, including capacity building for TMO and DMO chapters in eight regencies in Flores, a meeting between the governor and all Flores regents as well as local legislative councillors to finalize the Flores tourism master plan.

“Tourism destinations that are created with the help of Swisscontact have made them more advanced than similar destinations in other regions in Indonesia,” he said, adding that it was marked with the establishment of the Regional DMO in Flores and seven TMO in each regency.