REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KENDARI -- Tourism Minister Arief Yahya is scheduled to officially open the Wakatobi Wonderful Festival and Expo (Wakatobi Wave) 2015 to be held in Wangiwangi, the capital of Wakatobi, on November 22-28, 2015.

The festival and expo are organized to coincide with the 12th anniversary of Wakatobi District.

"The Wakatobi Wave will be officially opened by the tourism minister, and the highlight of the event will be a cultural parade involving some 10 thousand participants," the Wakatobi district chief stated.

The participants will come from the province's four major islands: Wakatobi, WangiWangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko.

Some foreign tourists from Australia and Europe, among other countries, are also expected to visit the Southeast Sulawesi Province during the Wakatobi Wave.

Some one thousand dancers will perform a colossal traditional dance called "The Charm of Wakatobi as the Center of the World Biosphere Reserve."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had declared the Wakatobi Marine National Park of Southeast Sulawesi province as a world biosphere reserve area in 2012.

"The UNESCO has declared the Wakatobi national park, which covers an area of 1.3 million hectares, to be a world biosphere reserve along with 12 other biosphere reserves in the world," Wakatobi District Chief Hugua had remarked in May 2012.

According to Hugua, the decision to make Wakatobi a world biosphere reserve was reached at the 18th meeting of International Advisory Committee for the UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve Program in Paris on April 2-4, 2012.

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