Pesawat jet supersonic yang dibuat oleh seorang insinyur asal Kanada bernama Charles Bombardier ini ditengarai dapat terbang 10 kali lipat kecepatan suara. Inilah Skreemr, Jet Supersonik Saingan ConcordeSkreemr, pesawat jet supersonik yang mengalahkan kecepatan Concorde, pesawat tercepat di dunia. (Charles Bombardier via Intisari Online) Dalam dunia modern semua orang ingin yang lebih besar, lebih hebat, lebih cepat, dan lebih segalanya. Inilah Skreemr, pesawat yang lebih cepat dari Concorde, pesawat tercepat di dunia. Jika Concorde sebelumnya sudah mengumumkan akan mengeluarkan Concorde 2.0 yang berkecepatan lima kali lipat kecepatan suara, sekarang mereka sudah memiliki pesaing. Pesaing Concorde cukup hebat karena Skreemr ditengarai dapat terbang 10 kali lipat kecepatan suara. Pesawat jet supersonic ini dibuat oleh seorang insinyur asal Kanada bernama Charles Bombardier. Bombardier baru-baru ini mengumumkan visinya untuk membuat pesawat super cepat yang bisa membawa penumpang dari New York ke London hanya dalam waktu 30 menit saja. Kecepatan Skreemr yang super cepat akan didapatkan dari empat sayap serta dua roket di bagian belakang. Pesawat ini akan lepas landas dengan menggunakan sistem rel magnetis yang ditembakkan ke udara atau sistem lepas landas elektrik. Sistem manapun yang kelak akan digunakan, Bombardier berkata bahwa ia membutuhkan waktu cukup lama untuk membuatnya. Ia khawatir penumpang akan terkena tekanan tenaga yang terlalu kuat jika pesawat ini diluncurkan dengan kecepatan 10 Mach, kecepatan 10 kali lebih cepat dari suara. Pesawat ini kelak bisa mengangkut 75 orang pemberani. Saat ini Bombardier memang masih membuat pesawat ini untuk tujuan militer namun ia berkata bukan tak mungkin kelak masyarakat umum dapat memakai pesawat ini.

Pesawat jet supersonic yang dibuat oleh seorang insinyur asal Kanada bernama Charles Bombardier ini ditengarai dapat terbang 10 kali lipat kecepatan suara.

Skreemr, pesawat jet supersonik yang mengalahkan kecepatan Concorde, pesawat tercepat di dunia. (Charles Bombardier via Intisari Online)

Dalam dunia modern semua orang ingin yang lebih besar, lebih hebat, lebih cepat, dan lebih segalanya. Inilah Skreemr, pesawat yang lebih cepat dari Concorde, pesawat tercepat di dunia.

Jika Concorde sebelumnya sudah mengumumkan akan mengeluarkan Concorde 2.0 yang berkecepatan lima kali lipat kecepatan suara, sekarang mereka sudah memiliki pesaing. Pesaing Concorde cukup hebat karena Skreemr ditengarai dapat terbang 10 kali lipat kecepatan suara.

Pesawat jet supersonic ini dibuat oleh seorang insinyur asal Kanada bernama Charles Bombardier. Bombardier baru-baru ini mengumumkan visinya untuk membuat pesawat super cepat yang bisa membawa penumpang dari New York ke London hanya dalam waktu 30 menit saja.

Kecepatan Skreemr yang super cepat akan didapatkan dari empat sayap serta dua roket di bagian belakang. Pesawat ini akan lepas landas dengan menggunakan sistem rel magnetis yang ditembakkan ke udara atau sistem lepas landas elektrik.

Sistem manapun yang kelak akan digunakan, Bombardier berkata bahwa ia membutuhkan waktu cukup lama untuk membuatnya. Ia khawatir penumpang akan terkena tekanan tenaga yang terlalu kuat jika pesawat ini diluncurkan dengan kecepatan 10 Mach, kecepatan 10 kali lebih cepat dari suara.

Pesawat ini kelak bisa mengangkut 75 orang pemberani. Saat ini Bombardier memang masih membuat pesawat ini untuk tujuan militer namun ia berkata bukan tak mungkin kelak masyarakat umum dapat memakai pesawat ini.

N219, Pesawat Perintis Karya Anak Negeri

Pesawat perintis N219 ini didesain sesuai dengan kebutuhan Indonesia sebagai negara kepulauan yang memiliki banyak pulau terpencil.

Pesawat N-219 buatan PT Dirgantara Indonesia. (Tribunnews via Kompas.com)

Setelah mengalami krisis ekonomi yang pelik, PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI)—pabrik pesawat terbang pertama dan satu-satunya milik pemerintah Indonesia—kembali beroperasi dan menelurkan karya.

Bersama Lembaga Antariksa dan Penerbangan Nasional (LAPAN), PT DI mengerahkan 150 ahli penerbangan untuk merancang pesawat yang diberi nama N 219.

Pesawat N-219 merupakan pesawat perintis yang kelak akan digunakan untuk menghubungkan pulau-pulau terpencil di Indonesia. N-219 akan keluar hangar dan diperlihatkan kepada publik dalam waktu dekat.

Pesawat N 219 didesain sesuai dengan kondisi bandara perintis di Indonesia, yang umumnya terletak di kawasan timur Indonesia. Pada umumnya, bandara perintis terletak di daerah yang dikelilingi pegunungan tinggi, seperti di Papua dan Maluku.

Pesawat N219 ini tidak saja mampu lepas landas dan mendarat di bandara yang memiliki keterbatasan panjang landasan pacu, tetapi juga yang landasannya berumput atau berkerikil.

Direktur Teknologi dan Pengembangan PT. DI Andi Alisyahbana mengatakan prototip atau purwarupa pesawat N219 yang mulai dibuat pada September 2014 itu menggunakan 40% konten lokal.

 “Rencananya nanti kami akan meningkatkan konten lokal pada pesawat jenis ini hingga 60%,” tambah Andi.

Mesin Jet untuk Pesawat Luar Angkasa

Konsep desain Reaction Engines untuk Skylon, pesawat luar angkasa dengan mesin jet yang meluncur dan dapat digunakan kembali. (Reaction Engines via The Guardian)

Sebuah mesin roket berpotensi mengubah permainan. Mesin ini telah menarik investasi baru yang signifikan, untuk memungkinkan pembangunan teknologi luar angkasa.

Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) menggabungkan unsur jet dan roket mesin. Hal ini dirancang untuk memungkinkan "pesawat luar angkasa" lepas landas dari landasan pacu konvensional dan "terbang" ke orbit.

Setelah misinya selesai, pesawat akan kembali ke tanah seperti pesawat lainnya, sehingga dapat digunakan kembali. Mesin ini juga harus dibuat lebih murah daripada peluncuran roket konvensional.

SABRE adalah gagasan dari insinyur Inggris, Alan Bond, yang mendirikan Reaction Engine pada tahun 1989.

Kelangsungan hidup dari mesin telah divalidasi oleh European Space Agency (ESA) selama review yang dilakukan atas permintaan pemerintah Inggris. Hal ini melibatkan pemberian sebesar £50 juta oleh pemerintah untuk membantu persiapan desain, pembuatan dan pengujian mesin demonstrasi. ESA kini sedang menyusun kontrak senilai $ 10 juta.

Sekarang, investasi swasta juga telah diumumkan. Perusahaan dirgantara global, BAE System akan berinvestasi sebesar £20 juta dengan imbalan 20% dari keuntungan Reaction Engine, dan akan masuk sebagai mitra kerja mereka. Hal ini memungkinkan perusahaan untuk bergerak ke arah pembuatan mesin uji berbasis tanah, merupakan tonggak penting.

SABRE bekerja sebagai mesin jet untuk mempercepat pesawat luar angkasa menjadi lima kali dari kecepatan suara. Dengan mengubah cara kerjanya, pesawat kemudian menjadi mesin roket, mempercepat jadi lebih dari 25 kali kecepatan suara, cukup cepat untuk menempatkan pesawat luar angkasa langsung ke orbit.

(K.N Rosandrani/The Guardian)

Smoke From Wildfires Is Killing Hundreds of Thousands of People

And fires like the ones raging in Indonesia can cross mountains and oceans, spreading lung-clogging particles and toxic chemicals.

Known as the Rough Fire, a wildfire raged through national forests and parks in California from late July through October, burning about 152,000 acres and sending plumes of smoke over

Dr. Praveen Buddiga knew he would find a packed waiting room when he arrived at his office that warm September day in California’s Central Valley. White flakes drifted from the sky, as if he were inside a snow globe.

The Rough Fire, a 152,000-acre blaze sparked by lightning in the Sequoia National Forest, was lofting thick smoke, soot, and ash into the air—and into the lungs of Buddiga’s patients 35 miles away, in Fresno.

As an allergist, Buddiga knows that wildfires pose a serious, sometimes lethal, threat to people’s health, particularly for those with asthma or heart disease.

“Older [patients] made the universal choking sign—you know, hands around the throat,” Buddiga says. “Younger ones just pointed to their chests. The Rough Fire was devastating for us.”

The emissions from wildfire smoke have tremendous public health implications.

Wayne Cascio

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Around the world, billions of people are finding that the air carries a dangerous dose of smoke as wildfires become bigger and more intense.

“We see these trends, and the emissions from wildfire smoke have tremendous public health implications,” says Dr. Wayne Cascio, head of environmental public health at the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in North Carolina.

The city of Palangkaraya in Indonesia is blanketed with yellow, acrid smoke from peat fires. The government is expected to call a national emergency as the fires and smoke spread. Worldwide, wildfire smoke kills 339,000 people a year, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, researchers estimate. In addition, other studies document up to a tenfold increase in asthma attacks, emergency-room visits, and hospital admissions when smoke blankets places where people live.This week, much of Southeast Asia is blanketed with thick smoke from peat fires in Indonesia that are expected to smolder for months. An estimated 40 million Indonesians in five provinces are breathing the soot, and the government is expected to declare a national emergency.When peat, a marshy material, burns, it spews “far more smoke and air pollution than most other types of fires,” according to NASA, which warns that the Asian fires are likely to worsen and spread vast distances.

Satellite images confirm that smoke can cross mountain ranges, continents, and oceans. Fires 250 miles away have triggered 911 calls in Albuquerque. Quebec blazes have sent plumes 800 miles to make New Yorkers wheeze.

The eyes of Texans have been reddened by Honduran farmers’ burning 1,500 miles to the south. And North American smoke has traveled 5,000 miles to twitch nostrils in Eastern Europe. Some, such as Indonesia’s fires, have plumes of smoke so huge they obliterate entire countries in photographs shot from outer space.

Smoke’s Hidden Dangers

Fires can smolder for months, and layers of stagnant air known as inversions, common in the western U.S., can hold smoke down where people breathe. On some days, the health threat can far exceed the air pollutant levels that federal standards allow.

NASA satellite image shows smoke from Indonesia’s fires. Peat fires burn there frequently because farmers engage in “slash and burn agriculture,” which involves burning of rainforest to clear land for crops and livestock. Smoke’s biggest threat comes from the airborne, microscopic particles that slip past the body’s defenses and reach the alveoli, the farthest ends of the respiratory system. Some of these particles enter the blood and form a thick goo. Smoke also contains carbon monoxide, which can cause long-lasting damage to the heart, and chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde, known to cause cancer in humans.“Air pollution generically, and particles, specifically, are carcinogens,” says Dr. Jonathan Samet, a pulmonary physician and researcher at the University of Southern California. “That would also be the case with smoke from wildfires, from the burning of vegetative matter.”

New evidence is emerging that the heart is vulnerable to damage inflicted by smoke.

EPA researchers found that emergency-room visits for heart failure jumped 37 percent following the smokiest days of a big 2008 peat fire in eastern North Carolina. ER trips for breathing problems rose by 66 percent. Poor people faced the most risk, even with access to medical care, EPA statistician Ana Rappold says.

The challenge is in front of us. We know that these ecosystems will burn.

Pete Lahm

U.S. Forest Service

And in 2015, Dr. Anjali Haikerwal of Australia’s Monash University reported a 7 percent increase in out-of-hospital cases of cardiac arrest when bushfire smoke blanketed greater Melbourne in 2006-07. “Now we have very, very strong evidence,” she says.

Babies in the womb also are at risk. During Southern California’s 2003 fires, babies weighed on average 0.2 ounces less at birth than those born just before the fires, a 2012 study found. Those exposed in the second trimester had the biggest deficit, just over one-third ounce. The differences might not matter much in the long run, but they add to evidence that smoke affects health.

A cyclist rides beneath a smoke-filled sky in Middletown, Calif., in September. Health experts advice people not to exercise on smoky days because the soot and gases can trigger asthma attacks and heart problems. Coping With Bigger Fires

Reasons for the trend toward bigger and more damaging fires vary, but the shifting relationship between people and the planet is a primary culprit. People are moving into cities’ wilder, fire-prone edges, particularly in California, Texas, and Florida. Especially in the West, decades-long suppression of blazes has set the conditions for today’s raging fires. Globally, while fire is an age-old farming tool, burning to clear cropland has reached an industrial scale; in East Asia, forests are being burned down to transform them into palm-oil plantations.

Climate change also is worsening exposure to wildfire smoke. In 2011, the National Research Council estimated that for each 1.8 degree F. (1 degree C) rise in global temperature, the number of acres burned in the western U.S. could increase by 200 to 400 percent.

One-fourth of the Earth’s vegetated surface is seeing much longer fire seasons, according to U.S. Forest Service scientists. “If these fire weather changes are coupled with ignition sources and available fuel,” the researchers wrote, “they could markedly impact global ecosystems, societies, economies and climate.”

So what can people and society do? Unfortunately, choices are limited -- “you cannot block smoke with some enormous filter in the sky,” says Klaus Moeltner, a Virginia Tech economist who has studied wildfire costs. Nevertheless, limiting smoke exposure could become a goal of firefighting strategies. “Upwind of a big populated area might be a good place to start,” Moeltner says.

Also, setting small, controlled blazes would eliminate the vegetation that fuels huge fires.

“The challenge is in front of us,” says Pete Lahm, smoke manager at the U.S. Forest Service. “We know that these ecosystems will burn.”

But that approach presents problems. Many state and local air-quality rules limit when prescribed fires are allowed, and fire guidelines generally forbid burning when smoke might reach neighborhoods.

For those in the smoke, experts advise people to stay inside with windows shut and air conditioners and air filters on. And don’t work out when the world seems like a giant campfire.

“You might not want to ride your bike or go running,” says Samet, “when you can smell the air.”

10 Great Pleasure Hikes in the U.S.A.

The Hoh Rain Forest is one of Olympic National Park's most popular destinations. (Photograph by Brett Holman/Tandem Stock)

Hiking is one outdoor activity that just about anyone old enough to walk can enjoy. Some trails, however, are more challenging than others.
If you’re new to the world of hiking—or are a seasoned pro hoping to introduce the younger generation to the joys of walking in the woods—here are ten great places to start, from Florida to Washington State.

Lace up your boots and get going:

> Hoh Rain Forest (Washington)

The Hoh Rain Forest, part of Olympic National Park, includes several accessible nature hikes. To explore this enchanted land, try the Hall of Mosses Trail (0.75 mile) and the Spruce Nature Trail (1.25 miles). Look for Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and huge western cedar as you wander through moss-draped maples and conifers in this temperate forest that receives up to 14 feet of rain each year.

> Sky Meadows State Park (Virginia)

Located just an hour’s drive west of Washington, D.C., this is a lovely park in Virginia with views of the Blue Ridge mountains. Take a short day hike on one of Sky Meadows’s many nature trails, including a 2.4-mile section of the legendary Appalachian Trail. Settle in with a picnic and enjoy expansive views of the rolling farmland.

> Muir Woods National Monument (California)

A path wends through Muir Woods National Monument, home to some of the tallest trees in the world. (Photograph by iceninejon, flickr)

Located just north of the Golden Gate, this park offers a wonderful array of loop hikes through California’s giant coastal redwoods. While adults savor the cool shade and well-marked trails, kids search for clues to the Muir Woods Quest. Before long, the spirited hike will have the entire family discussing boles, hollows, and old-growth forests.

> Smoky Mountain National Park (Tennessee)

This Tennessee park contains the world’s best example of temperate deciduous forest. Quarter-mile paths, called quiet walkways, stem from the park’s roadway. Any one of them offers access to silent wonders. Near Sugarlands Visitors Center is the Chimney Tops Trail, a lovely four-mile hike through old-growth forest up to sheer cliffs.

> Ohio & Erie Canal Trail (Ohio)

Popular with local and visiting families, this historic trail in Ohio has many points of access. Try the 4.3-mile Boston Store to Station Road Bridge section, which includes the historic Boston Store, several canal locks, and the Station Road Bridge, constructed in the early 1880s. This park is not far from the big cities of Akron and Cleveland.

> Illinois & Michigan Canal (Illinois)

Less than an hour’s drive outside Chicago, near the town of Channahon, is a lovely hike from Lock #6 past Lock #7 to McKinley Woods. Features include a restored lock tender’s house, leafy trees, and the Des Plains River.

> Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (Colorado)

Wander into this lovely Colorado nature center, say hello to animals on the ranch farm tour, and sign up little ones for nature classes, where they can hike the beautiful Hallam Lake Trail. The whole family will enjoy the popular, paved Rio Grande Trail nearby, which follows the twisting Roaring Fork River.

One of the waterfalls hikers encounter on Oregon’s Horsetail Falls Trail (Photograph by nickay311, flickr)

> Columbia River Gorge (Oregon)

Great hiking trails abound around the Columbia River. Located 45 minutes outside of Portland, Horsetail Falls Trail is a 2.7-mile loop that’s a wonderful adventure for families with active kids (as always, exercise caution and keep an eye out for steep drops). The trail offers unforgettable views of three waterfalls: Horsetail, Ponytail, and Oneonta.

> Big Shoals State Park (Florida)

Located along the Suwannee River and the site of Florida’s largest white-water rapids, this park offers 28 miles of trails with beautiful scenic views from the riverside bluffs. A popular trail is the 3.4-mile paved Woodpecker Trail.

> Will Rogers Historic State Park (California)

Amble through this beautiful park located in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. This famous actor’s 186-acre ranch offers a moderate 2.2-mile loop starting at the tennis courts and ending with beautiful views of Santa Monica at Inspiration Point. Tour the stables and have a picnic on the polo fields.

Borneo Is Burning, and Humans and Orangutans Are in Danger

On September 16, 2015, just over a month ago, I began my journey into Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. I was finally starting my project studying the lives of orangutans, supported by a National Geographic Young Explorers grant.
The trek began two hours south of Gunung Palung, in the town of Ketapang. Early in the morning, after dropping of my trusted research assistant Evan at the bus terminal, I returned to my homestay and began loading up my motorbike, Babieca (named after the horse of El Cid, the legendary Spanish medieval hero), with several boxes of food and supplies that I needed to transport up to the field site.

At the Bus Terminal in Ketapang on Sep 16th, 2015. Pictured (left to right): My motorcycle “Babieca”, me, and my research assistant Evan Sloan. (Photo by Kat Scott)

I promptly hit the road, driving north about 45 miles (70 km) to the village outside the national park. By 11:00 a.m. I’d made it. The day before, I had organized a group of porters to help me carry the supplies on the four-plus-hour hike to Cabang Panti Research Station. I met them at the end of the village where the trailhead to Gunung Palung began, unloaded the supplies, and we all began preparing for the hike ahead.
The first part of the hike is through degraded peatland on the periphery of the national park. I had hiked up three weeks earlier for a different occasion, and the peatlands were as green as I’d ever seen them. But since then, we’d heard rumors of fire, and we were aware that the conditions were extremely dry. Even so, I didn’t expect to see the devastation that we encountered that day.
The peatlands were now a barren wasteland. It had caught fire somehow, and the greenery that was present just three weeks earlier had been turned into piles of ash on the ground. It was a depressing sight indeed, and my first personal experience with the humanitarian, environmental, and health crisis that Indonesia is currently facing.
Right now, the fires blazing in Borneo are so large and widespread that they can be seen from space. The smoke and haze is causing devastation not only in Indonesia, but in other nations as well. So far, 19 people have died from the smoke/fire in Indonesia, and hundreds are experiencing respiratory illnesses. (Read about the worldwide health issues resulting from wildfires.)
To make things worse, several rainforests in Kalimantan are now in danger of burning down, threatening the lives of up to 20,000 wild orangutans and thousands of other species of plants and animals.

Watch a clip from our journey into Gunung Palung in the video above.

Thankfully, the fires in Gunung Palung are confined to the degraded peatlands in the periphery of the national park, and the flames have not spread to the interior, primary rainforest. However, other field sites in Borneo have not been so fortunate. Two sites in Central Kalimantan, Sabangau and Tuanan, are perhaps facing the toughest challenge. Sabangau is home to the world’s largest population of wild orangutans; if the fires are not put out in time and the forest burns, up to 7,000 orangutans may die.  The situation at Tuanan is dire as well, and the fires have been creeping up so close to their campsite that workers have had to evacuate.
Could It Have Been Prevented?
As I begin my research project here in Borneo, the hotspot of this environmental disaster, I have to ask myself if all of this could have been avoided. Some may say that because of the free reign that palm oil corporations have had in clearing land for plantations, we were doomed from the beginning. Peatlands, which contain large amounts of flammable organic material, are not meant to be drained of their water. But that is exactly what has been done in order to pave the way for palm oil plantations. As a result, these huge tracts of land are now incredibly vulnerable to fire. Every year they ignite, and cover Indonesia and neighboring nations in smoke and haze. But this year, because of prolonged drought due to a strong El Niño, the fires have grown out of control.
It is now obvious that Indonesia is facing a huge crisis. The truth is, we should have seen it coming. Niccolo Machiavelli had it right: “ … by recognizing from afar the diseases that are spreading in the state (which is a gift given only to a prudent ruler), they can be cured quickly; but when they are not recognized and are left to grow to the extent that everyone recognizes them, there is no longer any cure.”
Early Warnings
Looking back at 1997, the last strong El Niño year (which also caused similar destruction in Indonesia), the danger should have been obvious. After suffering through that crisis, the exposed peatlands should have been rewetted, and a ban on further peatland development should have been enforced. But the government failed to foresee the fires as a big problem, and now it may be too late.
Worse still is the lack of foresight this year alone. It was long ago predicted that this year would likely be the worst El Niño year since 1997. Why was a national fire ban not implemented? The blame is not entirely on oil palm corporations. Many small scale farmers and locals purposefully or accidentally start fires. There need to be more educational campaigns in place to prevent this from happening.
Now we are now forced to take reactionary measures, rather than the preventative ones that could have saved us from the beginning. I hate to be cynical, but perhaps Hegel was correct in saying, “The only thing we learn from history, is that we learn nothing from history.”
Dealing With the Problem
Fortunately, local authorities have stepped up to deal with the fires. The national parks, in collaboration with the Indonesian army and local and international organizations, have been working hard to fight the fires in Tuanan and Sabangau. More aid is hopefully coming soon from the international governments and the central Indonesian government. I love Indonesia, and want to see its forests survive.
Please help out in any way you can by sharing this post and spreading the word about this crisis. It is not getting the news coverage a catastrophe of this nature deserves. (Related Story: Smoke From Wildfires Is Killing Hundreds of Thousands of People)
The researchers at Tuanan and Sabangau could use your help as well, and they are raising funds to fight the fire on gofundme.com and redapes.org.

 
BANYUWANGI — Kabupaten Banyuwangi, Jawa Timur, kini gencar membangun kawasan ekowisata untuk menarik wisatawan asing. Selain perkebunan kopi, agrowisata buah juga mulai dikembangkan di selatan Banyuwangi.

Ekowisata yang sudah berjalan di antaranya di perkebunan Kalibaru, kawasan wisata Ijen, Taman Nasional Alas Purwo, dan Merubetiri. Kini kawasan selatan berupa perkebunan buah rakyat juga akan dikembangkan menjadi agrowisata, berpadu dengan kawasan ekowisata mangrove dan hutan lindung.

Bupati Banyuwangi Abdullah Azwar Anas, Senin (24/2/2014), mengatakan, ekowisata dikembangkan agar waktu berkunjung wisatawan asing bertambah. Jika biasanya mereka hanya satu hari di Banyuwangi, kini bisa 2-3 hari. ”Artinya, kunjungan wisatawan asing akan semakin lama di Indonesia. Devisa yang masuk pun bertambah,” kata Azwar Anas.

Konsep ekowisata sebelumnya telah berkembang di Banyuwangi. Menurut Endang Mariana, pemilik Resor Margoutomo di Kalibaru, sejak tahun 1979 wisatawan asing mulai datang ke Banyuwangi untuk menikmati liburan di perkebunan dan menjelajah hutan.

Taman Nasional Alas Purwo di Banyuwangi, Jawa Timur.

Kini, industri pariwisata kian tumbuh. Resor yang dimiliki Endang berkembang dan lebih banyak menerima tamu asing dibandingkan wisatawan lokal. ”Kami menjual suasana tropis dan kehidupan desa sehari-hari, dan turis asing menyukainya,” kata Endang.

Sampai 2013, jumlah kunjungan wisatawan asing ke Banyuwangi sekitar 8.000 orang. Adapun domestik 14.000 orang. Jumlah itu belum termasuk wisatawan yang datang ke Ijen karena tak ada data resmi pengunjung di Ijen selama dua tahun terakhir.

Anas menargetkan jumlah kunjungan ke Banyuwangi bisa mencapai 48.000 orang per tahun, atau sekitar 20 persen dari wisatawan asing yang berkunjung ke Bali.

Bupati Banyuwangi Abdullah Azwar Anas mencoba tracking di Perkebunan Kali Bendo Banyuwangi, Jawa Timur.

Sementara itu, para pengelola hotel di Banten mengharapkan kenaikan tingkat hunian kamar dan penggunaan ruang pertemuan menjelang Pemilu 2014. Saat ini, pertemuan terkait pemilu mulai marak dilaksanakan.

General Manager My Pisita Anyer Resort Hardomo di Serang, Banten, Senin, mengatakan, para calon anggota legislatif mulai mengadakan pertemuan. Di My Pisita Anyer Resort diadakan dua hingga tiga pertemuan terkait pemilu per minggu. Pertemuan paling intensif diperkirakan selama satu bulan sebelum pemungutan suara. ”Mudah-mudahan selama rentang waktu itu diadakan pertemuan di My Pisita Anyer Resort setiap hari,” ujarnya. (NIT/BAY)