Indonesian tourism promo missing the point

Dennis G. Kloeth, Jakarta, The Jakarta Post

Tourism promotion, like promotion for any other product, has to do with common sense, knowledge about the market and target group and must be followed by creative thinking and clever and cost-effective marketing.

With all due respect to all people currently involved in Indonesia Tourism promotion, a close working relationship with true marketing experts is direly needed and should be made imminent. An important job like this should not be left up to well-meaning Tourism Ministry people alone but be shared with or be placed in the hands of a team of true and genuine tourism and marketing experts.

The new Visit Indonesia Year 2008 slogan "100 years of national awakening" is proof of the lack of such a think tank as it seems to propone the Culture and Tourism Ministry's desire to promote the country's political track record rather than the country's inner beauty and attractiveness as an excellent tourism destination.

A slogan is a tag line and it immediately sets the tone for what it tries to say or sell. Getting this slogan wrong may well burn all the money that is spent in taking promotion of a product well beyond the point of introduction.

Countries like Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Maldives, to name just a few, seem to have found the golden formula. They are showing us the way in how to sell the country by stringing together eye-catching and thought provoking images framed by a catchy tune and that create and sell a traveler's dream, the one and only important factor in trying to attract foreign tourists. Keeping open our eyes and ears and be willing to learn from somebody else that clearly is successful at what he or she does, is all we need to do.

There is a fine line between the art of successfully promoting a product and the art of completely missing the point, and the latter seems to be the case with the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 tag line of "100 years of national awakening" and a point well taken by David Kluwen from Kuta, Bali and Henry Manoe from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (The Jakarta Post of Dec. 27).

Note, however, that in using clever marketing experts that can create the perfect campaign spearheaded by the perfect tag line, this surely is no guarantee for success if all this doesn't coincide with upgrading Indonesia's seriously deteriorated tourism attractions and infrastructure as well as taking away every possible visa hurdle or any other threshold for incoming tourists. If this doesn't happen, then, and as David so poignantly writes, we really are putting the horse behind the cart, something that Indonesia sometimes seems to be so famous for. The visa-on-arrival regulation clearly is an example of some sort.

Take for instance Singapore. In November of 2007 alone, more than 800.000 visitors arrived in Singapore while the city-state's hotels earned record room revenues of S$175.4 million, an increase of almost 24 percent from the year before. Visitor arrivals were 4.6 percent up from last year and this was fuelled by strong arrivals from China, India and Australia, the very countries Indonesia's Culture and Tourism Ministry is targeting in its Visit Indonesia Year 2008 promotion campaign.

In attracting tourism, Singapore is leading the way, and here is why: Arriving in Singapore is a traveler's dream. The toilets are clean and religiously kept that way. Like in Indonesia, no hassles at the visa-on-arrival booth where a roving moonlighting off-duty immigration officer is trying to make an extra buck and no long lines at immigration and in a space that looks rather gloomy and depressed. No hassles too in trying to find a cab without being inundated by sleazy characters, equipped with fake ID cards, who try to lure you to their mode of transportation. Public transport in Singapore is a-dream-come-true with the MRT leading the way and making easy access to the major shopping malls possible at all times.

Singapore's lack of genuine tourism attractions is cleverly compensated by annually creating interesting art and culture happenings and by bringing to this island state not one, but two casino resorts as well as Asia's first Formula One Grand Prix that will take place at night.

Does Indonesia really need to try to reach the level of Singapore in offering tourists a somewhat polished-up Disneyland type of holiday destination? I firmly say NO. I believe that we shouldn't even try to aim for that illusive goal.

Other than Bali, Indonesia truly has enough interesting sites and sounds to offer foreign tourists and that can make Indonesia an attractive destination all in its own right. With Indonesia's hundreds of ancient temples and other cultural sites, the country can easily create its own brand of tourism. When it comes to that, not many countries can beat Indonesia in creating the right balance between holidaying, sightseeing and art and culture.

However, and as Thamrin Bhiwana Bachri, the Director General for marketing at the Culture and Tourism Ministry so clearly says, we need to clean up our act. In actual fact, the actual awakening lies just there.

The writer is the founder of the website www.indogolf.com that aims at promoting abroad Indonesia's fabulous world of golf and leisure. The writer can be reached at dennis@indogolf.com.