Pemuteran Tourism Village in Buleleng Regency, Bali, has won the prestigious Best Tourism Village 2025 award from the World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism/UNWTO). The award was presented at the Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism – 2025 Ceremony & Third Annual Network Meeting held in Huzhou, China, on Friday (17/10/2025).
Pemuteran Village successfully passed the selection process to become one of the 52 Best Tourism Villages in the World, competing against more than 300 tourism village candidates from 75 countries. The award was received directly by the Deputy for Tourism Destination and Infrastructure Development of the Ministry of Tourism, Hariyanto, together with representatives of the winning villages.
The advisor to the Pemuteran Village Tourism Development Group, I Gusti Agung Ngurah Kertiyasa, revealed that Pemuteran Village has proven itself to be a tourist destination worthy of visiting, even on the international stage. Agung explained that the long history of tourism in Pemuteran Village since the 90s has now succeeded in putting it on the world map.
“The preservation of the underwater world and coral reefs, as well as collaborative efforts between the community, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders, are the advantages that Pemuteran tourism village has over other tourism villages,” said Agung.
Minister of Tourism Widiyanti Putri Wardhana expressed her pride in this achievement. She called this award an international recognition of efforts in sustainable tourism management at the village level, and hoped that Pemuteran's success could inspire other tourist villages in Indonesia to continue optimizing their natural and cultural potential and community empowerment.
In a telephone interview, the head of Pokdarwis Segara Giri in Pemuteran village, I Ketut Sutrawan Slamet, said that the biggest challenge in the preparation was the provision of data and administration related to the potential of Pemuteran tourist village, which had to be done in a short time and required regular data updates.
“The domino effect of Pemuteran being selected as the Best Tourism Village 2025, apart from the ecotourism impact related to underwater nature conservation, is certainly also felt in terms of cultural preservation. When the economy is booming, other aspects such as culture will also be affected due to the increase in the number of tourists who definitely want to see traditional Balinese dances and so on,” added Sutrawan.
With the title of Best Tourism Village 2025, Pemuteran Village has the opportunity to become better known in the international tourism arena because it has joined the Global Best Tourism Village Network as a means of information exchange so that Pemuteran Tourism Village can continue to develop. Pemuteran Village will also become part of the Global Exposure of World Tourism Villages, which will continue to promote Pemuteran Tourism Village, thereby increasing the number of foreign and domestic tourist visits.
Indonesia