Banyuwangi diikutsertakan ke lomba Pariwisata di Spanyol. Sepulang dari Banyuwangi, saya sudah punya sedikit gambaran tentang apa yang harus saya tulis. Hari sudah Senin, dan deadlinenya hari Kamis.
Sabtu sebelumnya Pak Bramuda, banyak bercerita tentang kemajuan yang dicapai Kabupaten Banyuwangi dan saya melihat ada empat hal penting dalam presentasinya.
Berikut hasil tulisannya yang dikirim ke panitia lomba UNWTO di Spanyol:
Before 2012, the regency’s name, Banyuwangi, was barely heard especially among foreign visitors. Despite its strategic position, next to the mecca of Indonesian tourism of Bali island, and its wonderful natural assets from white sandy beaches to volcanoes, from culinary products to cultural performance and sacred rituals, Banyuwangi remained a sleepy neglected small town.
Within three years, the regency on the eastern tip of Java island has won more than 70 awards, with six of them on tourism sector, thanks to the radical transformation of the local government. Defying the usual negative perceived stereotypes of the local government officials, the local government has made a strategic move of reinventing the government. The decision includes, among others, blending its traditional functions to serve in areas of education, health, and social and to take care of the infrastructures , with a more goal-oriented and powerful-branding-machine team and speeding up the decision making process and mutual inter-dependency among government officials.
Armed with a simple communication technology such as Whatsapp and Blackberry Messenger, the usual three to four days of exchanging papers for administration has been cut into minutes of useful decision-making process.
This paper provides four key strategies made by the local government of Banyuwangi, the extent to which re-inventing the local government with ICT in a developing country can provide opportunities in establishing its tourism industry.
Four winning strategies, keys to the success of developing sustainable tourism in Indonesia: The Banyuwangi case
The practice of taking advantage of the internet, extranet and intranet to establish a sustainable tourism has been a natural experience in developed countries, where capacity and resources provides a sophisticated understanding of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, the local government has taken a further step by re-inventing the government with a simple technology which facilitates opportunities such as speeding the decision making process and thus, cutting unnecessary bureaucracy administration.
In terms of tourism potentials, Banyuwangi which is ten times the size of Singapore, is blessed with spectacular natural surroundings: volcanoes, forests, beaches. About 1,5 million of its population, posses skills in traditional music and elaborate traditional performances and live with their strong hundred-year long traditions. Their culinary world has distinctive features compared to the surrounding areas. Its position, on the eastern tip of Java island, next to the mecca of Indonesian tourism Bali island, is another advantage. However, tourism Banyuwangi has yet to enjoy the attention its deserves, not until 2011 when the government initiated four instruments which become keys to Banyuwangi competitiveness as a tourists destination, and with sustainable travel industry in mind, an industry which WTO defines as “tourism that meets the needs of the present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future.”
The office of the local government has been generally perceived as having limited tasks on providing public service limited in the areas of social, health, and infrastructure. Each of the Local Government Working Unit (SKPD) used to have their own interest in every aspect of government’s policy implementations. These are barriers which the then-new government has to deal with in the first place. The hardest challenge was to unite the vision and to change their mindset to reach a common goal in ensuring the value created and tourism events are both sustainable and market oriented.
The results of bringing all SKPDs on the same game level means the responsibility of promoting tourism does not lie solely on the hand of SKPD in charge of tourism. In reality, a tourism event displays various local products, from batik cloths to t-shirts, from food products to experience, and therefore, SKPD in charge of trade and investment has to lead in a trade fair accompanying the tourism event.
By using a simple smart-phone mobile application, SKPDs create an efficient, low cost, incremental innovation in the decision-making process and to ensure on the field hurdles are properly taken care of. An administrative paperwork which normally takes place from three to four days has been managed to be cut in a matter of minutes. Decision making is made simple.
Strategy 2: Branding
The local government considers branding strategy as an important step to promote and to reinforce the presence of the promotion materials. Other consideration covers identifying trends, working with the right media to find the right target market. In order to reinforce messages conveyed in the media, it actively works with several print media, television stations and establishes an army of social media journalists which guarantees a strong presence of positive media coverage of every established event.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the promotion and to ensure resources are spent in a responsible and cost effective way, the government hires an independent rating and research agency to provide insights and feedbacks. The result of the study will determine among others what events and festivals to proceed for the following year, based on the satisfaction of the visitors.
Strategy 3: Innovation
Establishing a market-oriented goal, but at the same time ballance the preservation of nature, culture, local society and environment. For example, nature protection is a must. In order to avoid any undesirable impacts, the local government bars issuance of permit for the industry on areas which is considered harmful to the social and ecological environment i.e. industry which creates noise for the environment and amusement industry including karaoke and discotheque. Limitation on permits for modern supermarkets is also considered essential to be a contributing factor to the growth of small scale and medium scale economy.
The introduction of “single window public service” for investment contributes to the business model innovation which ensures that targetted services begin from early stage.
A new airport with an extended run way was built to accomodate jet planes carrying more passengers. It is the first Indonesian green airport, without any airconditioners, with natural lighting and green surroundings.
Strategy 4: Event Management
In today’s saturated markets, customers look for experience rather than destination driven products. Hence, in the future it will be important to create a rewarding tourism experience through innovation and product development instead of offering singular tourism elements. New holiday forms offering experience will become the main motive for the holiday decision (Bartaletti, 1998).[1]
A strong cohesion among public servants via a simple mobile application, a combination of team-initiated festivals and traditional rituals are established incrementally, starting from five festivals in 2011 to 38 in 2015.
Despite a large number of events and festivals, the government focuses on three major events: an international sport event, and two events as showcases to the elaborate nature of traditional performance.
Without the involvement of professional event organizers, the government suggests a strong involvement of the society. One of the three major festivals, 1000 Gandrung dancers for example, has triggered the growth of local dance studios and the production of traditional dance-related elaborate attire.
To meet the demand of experience tourism, the local government establishes events beyond festivals such as in wide-range of plantations, living with traditional communities and marine nature conservation by planting coral reef.
Impacts:
Items
|
2013*
|
2014*
|
Handicrafts, including batik
|
24
|
45.4
|
Print and creative industry related
|
172.1
|
202.4
|
Culinary
|
654.4
|
692
|
Hotel
|
341.8
|
401
|
Entertainment and services
|
26.2
|
36
|
*in million rupiah
Tourism and festival events in Banyuwangi have triggered the growth of local 1) creative industries 2) more small scale and medium scale entrepreneurs, 3) new hotels, homestays and foodstall 4) environmental awareness in several communities.
Since the implementation of the new strategies, a drastic number in both local and foreign visitors’ visit increases except in 2012.
Year
|
Local visitors
|
Foreign visitors
|
2010
|
654.606
|
16.977
|
2011
|
773.385
|
12.967
|
2012
|
860.831
|
5.502
|
2013
|
1.057.967
|
10.462
|
2014
|
1.363.530
|
30.068
|
Source: National Bureau of Statistic
Sideimpacts from the implementation of the strategies, since 2012 the local government has won 75 awards on various categories, including 14 awards under Personal category for the head of the regency, and 13 awards for tourism and tourism-related category.
END
Setelah makalah saya kirimkan, pengumuman dijadwalkan bulan Desember. Dalam rentang waktu itu, banyak hal yang saya kerjakan, sehingga saya lupa soal lomba pariwisata tersebut. Tiba-tiba menjelang keberangkatan saya menuju Banyuwangi untuk peluncuran novel dan Lomba Mengarang, saya mendapat email kejutan: Banyuwangi masuk menjadi salah satu finalist Lomba.
Email tersebut datang pada tanggal 18 Desember, saat Banyuwangi memperingati hari jadinya yang ke 244. Saya merasa, dunia menjadi terang benderang. Belum pernah rasanya saya segembira ini dalam hidup saya. Sorenya, saya menuju Banyuwangi karena tanggal 19 akan meluncurkan novel Niti Negari Bala Abangan, buku Kembang Ronce 2015 dan mengumumkan Lomba Mengarang Cerita/Dongeng/Asal-usul di kantor Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata.
Dunia belum pernah terasa sesemarak ini.
(Bersambung)
iwandear@gmail.com
[1] Quoted in “Product improvement or innovation: what is the key to success in tourism”, Klaus Weiermair, University of Innsbruck, 2004)
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