there is an open portal for the community to
communicate directly with the government;
through personal communication channels
such as mobile phones, SMS etc and
through social media channels like Facebook
etc.
West Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia
that has great potential in the tourism sector as it can
be developed, be it nature tourism, historical tours,
culinary tours and shopping. The Department of
Culture and Tourism as an institution is directly
related to the field of tourism, and it has the
responsibility to be able to realise West Java as
being a reliable area in the field of tourism. The
activities of the Culture and Tourism Office of West
Java in the field of Tourism Marketing have a
significant role in the business development of the
tourism sector.
To promote tourism, the office requires
communication tools like websites. The website is
one manifestation of communication activities,
which is mass communication. In the process of
delivering information, several important aspects
determine the success of the process of delivering
the message, including information sources, namely
the party that makes and delivers the message.
Messages are the idea of symbolic codes, with
channels as the messenger medium and the
recipients of messages targeted for communication.
Technological developments have a great
influence on changes in communication systems and
information systems that make the communication
and delivery process of information become faster,
easier, cheaper and in a wider range. The
development of internet technology allows us to be
able to send and receive information from various
parts of the world through access to the website. As
part of the development of advanced communication
and information technology, globalisation is
increasingly widespread, involving all aspects of
human life. The world has become a global village.
The utilisation of internet technology in
Indonesia is developing at a relatively simple level.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that in the last two
years, the number of enthusiasts and internet users in
Indonesia has continued to increase. Currently, more
and more offices of government agencies and private
companies already have connections to the internet
network. Some of them have even published their
agencies in the form of an official website on the
World Wide Web (Anwaret al, 2018).
In promoting the existing tourism of West Java,
one of the technological advances used in promoting
West Java province's tourism is the website.
Through the official website of the Department of
Tourism and Culture of West Java, the government
can make local and international community’s better
know the potential of West Java tourism. It is not
widely known, so people can easily access
information about tourism in Western Java.
In 2010, there was a change in the interface,
regarding the content, web domain and database.
This is because, referring to the provisions of the
Department of Communications and Information of
West Java, the government's website must have a
go.id domain. They then changed the website
domain of the Department of Culture and Tourism
of West Java to www.disparbud.jabarprov.go.id.
APBD Jawa Barat manages the funding. The
website is managed, other than by the staff of the
Marketing Sector of Data Analysis and Information
Division, by is each admin per sector, including the
Secretariat and UPTD, the Department of Culture
and Tourism of West Java. However, this did not
work effectively, so starting from 2011 up until now,
the website management has only been done by the
Marketing Sector staff of the Section on Analysis,
Data and Information. The target visitors of the West
Java Tourism and Culture Website are all levels of
society, both foreign and domestic, that require
information about West Java Tourism.
As of September 8th, 2010, until now
(29/7/2018), there have been 3,215,022 visits to
5,861,502 pages on the official website of the West
Java Tourism and Culture Office. There have been
381 website visitors each day
(http://www.disparbud.jabarprov.go.id.)
At this time, the website of the Department of
Tourism and Culture of West Java is one effective
medium to promote tourism in West Java, but the
development and management of the website is not
without the constraints that cause deficiencies in the
feasibility of accessing the information on the
website.
The information contained in the website of the
Department of Tourism and Culture of the West
Java Province is not known by the community
because of the lack of information and socialisation
provided to the public in relation to knowing the
function of the website. The lack of information
related to promoting the web to the public is also
influential, so there are still people who are less
aware of the tours available in the West Java
Province. This relates to the type of information
presented on the website.
Aside from the lack of information and
socialisation given to the public regarding the
existence of the website, there are also some
The Online Marketing Communication Strategy for West Java Tourism by the Government
275