A week-long yoga festival is to be organised here in March with a view to promoting spiritual tourism in Bali and Indonesia.

The Bali-India Foundation, which is based here, will hold the International Bali-India Yoga Festival March 3-10 with the theme "Yoga for Health and Peace".

The organisers said the festival will take place in many regions of Bali with the support of the tourism department in an attempt to make the island a destination for spiritual tourism.

The head of the organising committee is Somvir, an Indian academic based here. Several eminent scholars from Europe and India will attend the event, he said.

Among those invited to the event are Jero Wacik, the Indonesian minister for culture and tourism, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, H. Utang Ranuwijaya of Majelis Ulama Indonesia, as well as H. Salman Harun of the Islamic State University of Jakarta.

Somvir, who heads the Bali-India Foundation and is an expert on yoga and Vedic Philosophy, said the festival would be organised annually to promote Indonesia as a destination for spiritual tourism.