Main Theme : How to brand your country in the middle of a global crisis?

Subtheme : Tourism

Arranged by : Rayhanat Zarkasyi and Intan Prasanty A

Improving Local Potency for Sustainable Tourism

The COVID-19 pandemic poses difficult challenges for investment promotion and
destination marketing. Businesses in various sectors as well as small and medium enterprises in
the tourism industry are the most influential. This has slashed tourism revenues and weighed on
Indonesia's overall performance. As a country full of multicultural cultural wealth, tourism plays
a very important role in the economy in Indonesia. However, since the beginning of 2020, the
presence of this global COVID-19 pandemic case is a form of danger that has the potential to
threaten all aspects of people's lives. In the face of countless personal tragedies and international
emergencies, this outbreak that threatens global public health also has a profound impact on
international trade and travel.

Tourism is one of the sectors that must be encouraged for recovery. In Indonesia, many
regional economies depend on this sector. It is also the easiest and most open way to absorb
labor. When viewed by sector, the transportation and accommodation, food and beverage sectors
in Indonesia experienced the deepest contraction. In the near future, domestic and non-domestic
tourism is expected to be the main opportunity to promote recovery and support the tourism
sector. Both represent the tourism sector hardest hit due to travel restrictions and reduced
demand due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus around the world. According to guidelines
from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), countries that are dependent
on the tourism sector should implement sustainable tourism so that it can continue when there
are other challenges like now. Sustainable tourism is defined by the UNWTO as tourism that
takes into account current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, meeting the
needs of visitors, industry, the environment, and local communities. UNWTO also advises the
public to focus on the local tourist market so that tourist destinations are ready to be fully opened
up to a larger market.

Thus, we will provide step by step to help take action to prepare for the recovery of
tourism in Indonesia as well as our country brand in the middle of the global crisis:
 1. Optimizing the use of digital platforms as a means of marketing tourism. This can be
done by using the internet to become virtual traveling with the aim of maintaining
tourism objects and promoting continuous communication with buyers and through social
media. This some people who are afraid to go out of the house but want to continue traveling can
still enjoy tourism objects without considering the health aspect.

2. Collaborating with the local government and local community organizations. To

increase the potential of regional tourism objects that are not yet known to tourists,
collaboration with the government and local community organizations is needed. This can be
done by conducting research and development into places that are not yet known to the
public but have potential tourist objects so that they can be a step in the effort to advance
tourist attractions.

3. Improve the quality of community resources around tourist objects by increasing skills
training, especially in making handicrafts and local food. In addition to being a
promotional media for branding, this is needed to increase production which can increase the
income of the area which can later be used to make improvements in the tourist attraction to
make it better.

By taking these steps we believe we can increase the branding of tourist attractions in
accordance with UNWTO guidelines which focus on increasing local potential as an effort to
improve tourism during and after the COVID 19 pandemic.