Recovering Indonesia's Tourism Through Diplomacy

Cooperation in these fields can encourage local tourism. For example, Yogyakarta has a sister city cooperation with the city of Kyoto in Japan. In addition, Bandung has para-diplomacy with Hamamatsu in Japan, Medan with Guangzhou in China, and many more. The activities carried out are cultural cooperation, education, and regional investment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic to date, the government has also made various diplomatic efforts to increase tourism by promoting tourism potential both now and in the future. Some of them have formal diplomacy, such as the diplomacy between Indonesia and Portugal carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. 

This collaboration discusses the potential for cooperation between the two countries in tourism and the creative economy, such as product development, exchanging experiences in sustainable tourism development, and sharing tourism marketing best practices, especially brand communication and online and offline market knowledge, between countries.

In addition to Portugal, formal diplomacy is also carried out by Indonesia and Greece, to collaborate and exchange information, so that Indonesian tourism can rise like Greek tourism and promote the beauty of Indonesian tourism to the Greek people. In addition, Indonesia will also carry out public diplomacy by establishing local events in Greece. Diplomacy at the regional level is also carried out by the Indonesian government with ASEAN countries, namely Cambodia. 

Through the 2022 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), the Indonesian government cooperates with Cambodia by continuing cooperation in the tourism sector, by signing a memorandum of understanding between the two countries. The renewal of this collaboration will focus on cooperation in promotion, marketing, destination management, sector cooperation, capacity building, events, and MICE.

Indonesian representatives abroad are also actively involved in innovating to promote Indonesian culture abroad. Like the cultural diplomacy and digital diplomacy carried out by the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna, Austria, by utilizing advances in information technology and holding many virtual cultural diplomacy activities. 

Various online activities have been carried out, including online Indonesian language learning, tourist film screenings, and cultural concerts in Indonesia linked to the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna website, social media, and cultural and culinary dialogues. Through this activity, it is hoped that it can build an image of Indonesia, which is rich in nature, culture, and the hospitality of its people.

According to the author, the government has been very active in promoting tourism through diplomacy and its instruments. However, there are still many things that can be done by both the government and the community. Indonesia has 10 priority tourism areas, namely Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Tanjung Kelayang in Bangka Belitung, Tanjung Lesung in Banten, the Thousand Islands, and Kota Tua in DKI Jakarta, Borobudur in Central Java, Bromo Tengger Semeru in East Java, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi , Mandalika in NTB, Labuan Bajo in NTT, and Morotai in North Maluku.

With the stipulation of these priority areas, it is hoped that local governments, both at the district, city and provincial levels, can actively carry out paradiplomacy to introduce local tourism and cultural areas so as to create a positive image of the beauty of Indonesia to the international community. Not only governments in priority tourism areas can also participate in para-diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, and digital diplomacy to promote tourism in their regions, for example, Aceh with its halal tourism and Papua by promoting Raja Ampat.

Apart from the government, the public can also be active in various public diplomacy activities to promote Indonesian tourism. The public can participate by introducing Indonesian tourism and culture through social media to the global community, creating artistic creations that build Indonesia’s image by Indonesian artists, and being active in student and cultural exchange activities abroad. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, meaning that our task of promoting tourism has not yet been completed. It would be nice if we as a society remain productive while playing a role in promoting tourism abroad, so that we can restore the Indonesian economy again.