Promotion Strategy of Borobudur World Cultural Heritage Site for International Tourists
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Promotion Strategy of Borobudur World Cultural Heritage Site for International Tourists
I Ketut Surya Diarta1
Subak and Agrotourism Laboratory
Department of Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture, Udayana University Denpasar Bali Indonesia
Email: suryadiarta_jurnal@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The poor promotion strategies of Borobudur caused the low international tourists’ arrival. Therefore, this study aimed to develop promotion strategies for the Borobudur world cultural heritage site as a tourist attraction for foreign tourists. Respondents were selected by accidental sampling of 50 tourists combined with FGD of local tourism stakeholders. Data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative method and SWOT analysis. The results showed that: (1) Strategy SO can be reached by public relations by making online publicity and using endorser to reach international coverage, (2) Strategy WO achieved through the financial support for advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing ( 3) Strategies ST approached with the digital promotion supported by strong branding and assisted personal selling and direct marketing, and (d) Strategies WT by promoting Borobudur market in Asia, America, and especially Australia through increasing frequency of sales promotio.n and direct marketing supported by advertising to the target market. Keywords: strategy, promotion, Borobudur, tourists, foreign.
Indonesia has several UNESCO’s world heritage. Some of them become a tourist attraction which has been visited by international tourists such as Borobudur temple (cultural category, approved in 1991) (UNESCO, 2016). Although Borobudur is a world heritage list, the number of international tourist arrivals is low (464,736 international tourists in 2015 (Setyaningsih, 2016). Meanwhile, the target of Borobudur international tourist’s arrival in 2019, according to the Minister of Tourism, is about 2 million tourists (Susanto, 2015). This was further reinforced by President Joko Widodo who wishes of increasing international tourists’ arrival to Borobudur (Prasetyo, 2016).
On the other hand, Ministry of Tourism has set 12 million international tourist arrivals in 2016 and became 20 million in 2019. It requires more focus tourism destination marketing efforts (BPTM) 2015). This is not impossible considering the potential of the international tourist market. UNWTO (2015) in its document “UNWTO Tourism Highlights” reported that in 2014 international tourist arrivals of 1.133 billion tourists grew by 4.3% from previous year and are predicted to reach 1.8 billion tourists by 2030. This is a potential international tourists market for world heritage sites in Indonesia including Borobudur.
One aspect of marketing to generate the awareness of international tourists is a promotion (Morgan, 2001; Morrisan, 2010). Promotion is an effort to communicate and to sell tourism destinations to potential tourists. It is necessary to integrate all promotional instruments to increase international tourist visits through advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations (Morrisan, 2010).
This condition becomes a strong research justification to formulate a promotion strategy of Borobudur cultural heritage site as a tourist attraction for international tourists.
The study was conducted at Borobudur Temple in May 2016. Borobudur was chosen deliberately with the consideration of its status as a world cultural heritage site as well as a tourism destination that has been visited by international tourists and has been established as the ten main tourism destinations in Indonesia. However, the amount of international tourist arrivals in Borobudur is still not as expected.
Research respondents were determined by using convenience sampling technique of 50 international tourists who are visiting the research site and are willing to be interviewed. Stakeholders who participated in focus group discussions are deliberately chosen those who understand deeply about Borobudur's tourism management and have the ability and deep understanding of international tourism, both from government agencies and the tourism industries, academics, and community leaders. Data were analyzed descriptively using the analysis of class intervals and SWOTanalysis (Rangkuti, 2002).
International tourists who visited Borobudur Temple are dominant from Europe Continent equal to 56%, from America Continent equal to 16% and the rest from Asia Continent. Based on their origin county, dominant from the Netherlands, America, France, England, and Singapore.
Male and female tourists are relatively balanced. By age, international tourists visiting Borobudur are dominant at the age of 19 to 29 years, followed by the age range of 30 to 40 years. Tourists are dominantly well educated. The average frequency of international tourist arrivals in Borobudur is 1.02 times that is still very low, or it can be said the majority are not revisited, guests.The average length of stay is 2.84 days that is still very short. For example when compared to Bali that the average length of stay for international tourists is from 2 to 3 weeks.
The average frequency of recommending Borobudur by international tourists to family, friends, colleagues, or other is 2.88 times. Travel arrangements of international tourists to Borobudur dominantly done by personal (52%) followed by travel agents (40%). The majority of international tourists (54%) visited Borobudur with a partner then followed by family (20%) with the majority (92%) travel expenditure is in the range of 501 USD to 1000 USD.
Overall, the effectiveness of Borobudur promotion mix is low with an average score of 2.28. The top three that contribute to the effectiveness of the promotional mix as the World Cultural Heritage are personal selling, advertising, and public relations respectively.
Advertising. The average effectiveness score level of advertising media is 2.32 which is classified as low effectiveness. The majority of international tourists (60%) rely on electronic media such as search engines, social media (FB, Twitter, and Instagram), online media (National Geographic, Lonely Planet, CNN, etc.), endorsers, TV, and radio. The role of a search engine to find information about Borobudur perceived by international tourists is very important (26%) followed by social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram by 22%). The role of the endorser is just as important as online media because it is more reliable because it was a review based on the author's personal experience after making a previous visit.
Sales promotion. The average effectiveness score level is 2.01 that categorized as low due to lack of coordination among all tourism stakeholders at the local level. Most of the sales promotions are done through the internet (22%) followed by an endorser (23%) and brochure (14%). Based on FGD results, this effort is dominantly done by private parties, namely hotels and restaurants, travel agencies, tour guides, and freelancers compared to the role played by the local government such as by the local tourism office.
Public relations. The average achievement score is 2.24 that classified as low public relations effectiveness. Generally, for international tourists, Borobudur is more perceived as an attractive tourist destination because of the adequate tourism aspects such as accessibility, tourist attractions, tourism facilities, and the hospitality of local community. All of which fall into the category of good premises that reach 11% of the
total reasons that are highlighted. Borobudur is perceived as a tourism destination that competes fairly in the price of package tours (10%) and provides adequate and competitive services (10%). Public relations efforts are also felt by international tourists through marketing campaign activities in their country (10%).
Personal selling. The average score is 2.75 that classified as moderate effectiveness. The majority of personal sales are mediated by a positive word-of-mouth (WOM) associated with Borobudur (34%) and after that, mediated by personal contact (24%) with international tourists. The data indicate that importance of the role of maintaining relationships with tourists who have visited previously. They are potential to be repeater tourists and to be promotion persons who are quite effective in influencing other prospective tourists.
Direct marketing. The average score obtained for Borobudur is 2.09 which fall into the low effectiveness category. Direct marketing efforts are made through direct contact (35%) between tourism industry actors and prospective international tourists either through trade shows, exhibitions, cultural missions, and the like. Then, it was followed by the distribution of catalogs or calendar of annual tourist activities (29%) and via email (22%).
According to local tourism stakeholder’s perspective, the average achievement of the overall promotional mix score is 3.00 that classified as moderate effectiveness. The effectiveness of Borodudur promotion mix is dominantly determined by public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. The dominant of public relations in determining the effectiveness of promotion mix in Borobudur is caused by the existence of promotional management agency namely PT. Taman Wisata Borobudur, Prambanan, and Ratu Boko.
The top three main reasons for the promotion mix that are most decisive to local stakeholders to be implemented because of:
The ability to control of promotional mix messages. With an average score of 3.27 which is classified as a moderate level of implementation. Based on these characteristics, the most effective promotion mix in this category is through public relations (score 3.67). This is very reasonable considering the promotion materials presented are positive aspects which are strictly selected by the manager in an effort to build a positive image of Borobudur.
The effectiveness of promotional strategies with an average score is 3.15 that classified as the moderate level of implementation. According to this characteristic, the promotion mix generally has a balanced effectiveness except of direct marketing which is less effective to attract international tourists to Borobudur.
The ability of certain promotional mix tools to encourage foreign tourist visits to Borodubur with an average score of 3.07 which is classified as the moderate implementation level. Based on this category of characteristics, personal selling (score 3.33) is the most effective promotional mix.
On the other hand, less effectiveness of promotional mix strategy in Borobudur mainly due to lack of promotional
funding support and the constraints to the limitations of affordability of promotional tools in reaching audience and geographic coverage. This is very reasonable because it turns out the strongest promotional mix strategy implemented in Borobudur turns out through public relations (average score 3.26).
The promotion strategy of Borobudur world heritage site is approached by analyzing the matrix of internal and external strategy factors. Matrix analysis of internal strategy factors relates to the evaluative element of the implementation of promotional mix that has been implemented by local stakeholders. Meanwhile, matrix analysis of external strategy factor related to the promotion targets that are international tourists. The determination of the promotion strategy itself is approached by SWOT analysis that combines the possible matrix of internal and external strategy factors from the implementation of the promotion mix and available resources of Borobudur world cultural heritage.
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1) Internal Strategy
The preparation of internal strategic factor analysis summary (IFAS) is based on the strengths and weaknesses of promotional mix that are implemented at Borobudur World Heritage Site.
Strength. In general, the strength of the promotion mix at Borobudur World Cultural Heritage according to the perspective of local tourism stakeholders mainly relies on the combination of public relations and personal selling. Both of these techniques will combine the credibility power of high promotional messages as they come from public relations agencies and the ability to deliver personalized messages according to promotional targets and a good level of interaction with potential international tourists. .
Weakness. In general, the weakness of the promotion mix at Borobudur lies in advertising, direct marketing, and sales promotion. The weaknesses in this technique resulted in a lack of ability in reaching potential tourists both in number and geographical distribution (weak advertising), lack of ability in delivering promotional messages in a more personal, so less affect the prospective tourists in more depth. Lack of opportunities to interact directly with prospective tourists (weak direct marketing), and lack of ability in achieving certain prospective tourists target in accordance with the desired criteria and flexibility in adjusting if there is a change in the context of promotional targets (weak sales promotion).
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2) External Strategy
The preparation of external strategic factor analysis summary (EFAS) is based on opportunities and threats of Borobudur promotional mix and the characteristics of international tourists as promotional targets.
Opportunities. In general, international tourists market from Europe, especially in the range of 19-40 years is still a major market opportunity. The next opportunity concerns the tendency of international tourists who travel with a partner, family, or group which means opening up the promotion
opportunity with the larger amount of international tourists. Average travel expense is from USD 500 to USD 1000 which means the large target market with the ability of expenditure in that range. In fact, international tourists with the ability to spend above USD 1000 are still very much untapped.
Borobudur has a huge opportunity to be imaged as cultural tourism destination with the advantages of unique, prehistoric, and exotic identity. Sales promotion opportunity can use internet media and endorser to attract international tourists to Borobudur. Sales promotion through internet is usually used by travel agencies, hotels, tour guides, and endorsers. Word of mouth (WOM) and personal contact with tourists become an important element in promotional mix through personal selling technique. Direct marketing has the opportunity to be developed as a promotional tool through trade shows, exhibitions, cultural missions, catalog, or annual tourist activities calendar.
Threats. The promotion mix threats faced by Borobudur can be seen from low tourists’ arrival from Asia, America, Africa and Australia. The next threat is the low frequency of visit, low length of stay, and low frequency of recommending Borobudur to others. The next challenge is to attract tourists with willingness to pay more than 1000 USD considering the European market is relatively widely available candidates with more capabilities.
Advertising media like advertisements and billboards are felt less exist in tourists home country before they decide to visit except at certain airports and in flight magazines. The challenge is hard enough for personal because the effectiveness felt by international tourists is still low. Tourists make contact and decide to visit is not because of a personal selling program conducted by the governing body of Borobudur but because of individual contact either with a travel agent, local guide, or a friend's recommendation.
Based on the SWOT matrix, four Borobudur promotion strategies can be developed: SO, WO, ST and WT (Rangkuti, 2002) as follows.
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1) SO (Strength-Opportunity) Strategy
This strategy uses internal strength to open up greater opportunities in attracting international tourists. This SO strategy includes: (a) Public relations has a chance to be a strong promotional bases of Borobudur in attracting international tourists through the implementation of various international events to support international coverage either through advertorial coverage (features news) about the uniqueness of Borobudur on international TV networks, (b) Utilization of publicity media such as internet by creating a profesional website, inviting endorser to make special coverage on Borobudur, and through cooperation with international airlines to open direct access to tourists country of origin and provide space on the airline website, airline magazines, or other media owned by the airline.
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2) WO (Weakness-Opportunity) Strategy
This strategy uses by minimizing or controlling internal weakness to open up greater opportunities in attracting international tourists. This WO strategy can be pursued by: (a) Require more adequate funding support on aspects of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing so as to increase the determination of promotional tools to prospective international tourists more widely (both geographically and number of audience), (b) Increase the credibility and effectiveness of promotional mix tools especially advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing so that the message to the prospective tourists is more convincing them to visit.
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3) ST (Strength-Threat) Strategy
This strategy uses by leveraging the internal strength to overcome external threat so as to attract international tourists. This ST strategy can be pursued by: (a) the traditional tourist market from Europe needs to be guarded to grow and loyal to visit Borobudur. This is supported by the empirical condition of Borobudur that is not sensitive to the difference of gender, target of tourists with wide life span (19-60 years), well educated tourists that match with tourism typology of Borobudur world cultural heritage site, (b) Borobudur promotion sould be directed to digital promotion considering the tendency of increasingly individual tourist in making decisions both in looking for sources of information and make travel arrangements, (c) creating a strong Borobudur branding as a promotional tool that reflects the identity of Borobudur by emphasizing elements of uniqueness, prehistory, and exoticism. These will attract tourists supported by improvements in accessibility, services, and attractions that can be confirmed according to the promise of destination promotion so that tourists become satisfied and get a high value for money by visiting Borobudur, (d) Borobudur promotion through advertising should be more focused using electronic media such as search engines, social media (FB, Twitter, Instagram), online media (National Geographic, Lonely Planet, CNN, etc.), endorsers, and international TV networks. In the case of traditional media (print media) and outdoor media can be used by selecting and sorting outdoor media and places that have effective impacts such as international airports, buses and taxis in major cities of Europe, and banners on world-class sporting events. The role of Borobudur tourism management (PT Taman Wisata) needs to be improved in this context, and (e) Promotion through personal selling and direct marketing to attract tourists visits can be approached through Word of Mouth (WOM), direct contacts, exhibition, cultural mission, catalog distribution, annual tourist activity calendar, and via email. The principle of personal selling and direct marketing are emphasized in the context of getting closer to the potential market of international tourists.
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4) WT (Weakness-Threat) Strategy
This strategy overcomes the internal weaknesses to overcome the threata from the outside so as to attract foreign tourists. The WT strategy can be pursued by: (a) Need mode efforts to promote Borobudur as one of the world cultural heritage site especially for Asian, American and Australian. The promotion should be accompanied by promoting other tourist
attraction around Borobudur (Borobudur and beyond) so that tourists have a choice of various travel activities that strengthen the interest of tourists to visit, (b) Identify the causes of dissatisfaction of tourists during the visit to Borobudur and immediately handle it well with the increase of service to create satisfaction so as to recommend to others through WOM, social media, or other promotional channels, (c) Increase sales promotion and direct marketing activities in promoting Borobudur especially in the America, Asia, and Australia. Asia is culturally close while Australia is geographically not too far away from Borobudur in Centra Java, and (d) Encourage advertising of Borobudur more vigorous. The effectiveness of advertising can be improved primarily by considerating in the selection of advertising media on print and outdoor publicity that has not yet effective impact in encouraging tourists to visit Borobudur. Of course, the main emphasis is made on digital or electronic media and the promotions are delivered in an integrated manner to give greater effect for international tourists visit.
Based on the research results can be concluded as follows. (1) SO strategy can be pursued by public relations by using online publicity media and endorsers with international coverage, (2) WO strategy is achieved through more adequate funding support on advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and direct marketing aspects so as to have more credibility and effectiveness, (3) The ST strategy is approached by maintaining the traditional markets of Europe while enhancing Asian, American and Australian markets through digital promotion supported by strong Borobudur branding and assisted by personal selling and direct marketing through Word of Mouth (WOM) and direct contact, (D) WT Strategy by promoting Borobudur and beyond for Asian, American and especially
Australian markets that have not been well exploited and increasing the frequency of sales promotion and direct marketing in promoting Borobudur supported by effective advertising.
The promotional strategy cannot be successful without the synergy of all stakeholders. Therefore, in order to integrate the efforts, it needs to establish a special body that handles the promotion of Borobudur consisting of government, conservation office, tourism industry, NGO, local communities, and academics. This body needs to have sufficient financial support to implement an agreed promotion strategy to effectively reach and influence the decision of international tourists to visit Borobudur.
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