City Branding Strategy in Tourism Sector Development

Engla Desnim Silvia, Rika Wahyuni and Hadi Irfani

Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Putra Indonesia YPTK Padang,West Sumatera, Indonesia

Keywords: Tourism-development, City-branding, Brandin- strategy

Abstract: The reason for choosing this study is that the tourism sector has a strategic role in developing a region and

contributes significantly to addressing the economic and social problems present in the area. Another reason

is that the high competition in the tourism sector makes each area try to attract tourists to visit the area. To

encourage the sustainable development of the tourism sector, it is necessary to build the city's reputation and

a tool that serves to market the advantages of the tourism sector, namely city branding. This article aims to

describe the strategy of city branding in developing the tourism sector in Pesisir Selatan Regency. City

branding will be very effective in marketing the region's tourism potential, creating positioning and

differentiation of an area with other areas to win competition in the tourism sector.

1 INTRODUCTION

The vital role of the tourism sector is in national

development (Fahmi, et al., 2015). The tourism sector

can encourage economic growth, create jobs, reduce

poverty, accelerate development and strengthen

tolerance (Crotti & Mirashi, 2017). Tourism is

expected to be one of the leading sectors and drive

other industries (Yuristiadhi & Sari, 2017). The

number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia was

recorded at 11.5 million in 2016, a significant increase

in 2017 by 14.03 million and increased again in 2018

by 15.8 million (Ministry of Tourism, 2018).

However, the uneven distribution of tourist visits

in each region causes only certain cities to attract

potential attention. In contrast, others are not so visible

and lose their attractiveness as tourist destinations for

tourists (Herget, et al., 2015), so a strategy capable of

attracting attention is needed. One of the ways to

develop tourism potential sustainably is to market

tourism excellence through a city branding strategy.

City branding is the image management of a

destination through strategic innovation and

coordination of economic, social, commercial,

cultural and Government regulations (Anholt, 2007)

to build a positive image of a place and differentiate it

from competitors (Qu, et al., 2011). City branding is

an invaluable source of differentiation for all cities

globally, along with increasing competition between

places from time to time (Hultman, et al., 2016). The

success of city branding is not only limited to

communication and marketing. Still, it must cover

urban planning, culture, trade, and investment, but

many cities compete with other cities to get visitors

(Herget, et al., 2015). However, the success of

implementing city branding is not necessarily

followed by all cities in Indonesia. For example, the

application of city branding through the brand "The

Never Ending Asia" did not make Yogyakarta a city

with an Asian economic centre for trade, investment

and tourism (Chaerani, 2011). Furthermore,

implementing the city branding strategy in Ponorogo

district "Ethnic Art of Java" has not been widely

known to the public and has not been maximized due

to the lack of branding promotion, socialization and

publicity through the media (Megantari, 2018).

Three factors cause the failure of city branding; 1)

city branding only focuses on a single brand, whereas

city branding only uses one brand to represent the city.

2) city branding is more focused on brand marks, or

the majority of city branding only focuses on

developing a logo or theme, and 3) the inability of the

Government and all existing stakeholders to

collaborate in the success of city branding. City

branding should be a strategic action that can promote

a place or country to the international level (Hazime,

2011). Therefore, in this case, the use of city branding

strategy stages are classified as follow: 1) identity

includes the identification of a region (city, district and

region), 2) objectives include city branding, 3)

communication is a form of communication carried

out in promoting city branding, and 4) coherence,

Desnim Silvia, E., Wahyuni, R. and Irfani, H.

City Branding Strategy in Tourism Sector Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0010791600003317

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Science, Technology, and Environment (ICoSTE 2020) - Green Technology and Science to Face a New Century, pages 37-40

ISBN: 978-989-758-545-6

namely communication alignment of all parties related

to city branding promotion that has been built (Rusadi

& Wedayanti, 2019), as well as a city branding

strategy with The City Branding Hexagon approach,

covering aspects: 1) presence, 2) potential, 3) place, 4)

pulse, 5) people, and 6) prerequisite, are thought to be

more appropriate in developing the tourism sector and

effective in increasing tourist visits because of the

synergy between the Government, business people,

residents, community leaders and tourists.

Regarding the development of the tourism sector

in Pesisir Selatan Regency, it is necessary to take

reasonable city branding strategy steps to win the

competition in the tourism sector. This study aimed to

describe the city branding strategy in the development

of the tourism sector in Pesisir Selatan Regency and

the effectiveness of the city branding strategy in

Pesisir Selatan Regency.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

The type of research used is descriptive research with

a qualitative approach. This research focuses on city

branding strategy in the development of the tourism

sector in Pesisir Selatan Regency. The city branding

strategy includes four indicators, namely: 1) identity,

2) objective, 3) communication, and 4) coherence

which is adopted from Andrea Insch. To see the

effectiveness of the city branding strategy in

increasing tourist visits, the approach of The City

Brand Hexagon is adopted because it focuses on the

strength of city brands as a source of information and

this model is the most popular in the world. This

research's data collection techniques were obtained

through field research to obtain information and data

through interviews, data collection visits, and

documentation. To get valid data, the informants

involved and interviewed included the Head of the

Tourism, Youth and Sports Office as crucial

informants, Head of Tourism, Marketing and Tourist

Officers who visited Pesisir Selatan Regency as

additional informants.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 City Branding Strategy in the

Development of the Pesisir Selatan

District Tourism Sector

The Office of Tourism, Youth and Sports of Pesisir

Selatan Regency is an organization that can determine

a city branding strategy in Pesisir Selatan Regency.

The interviews and observations prove that the city

branding strategy is running well, but there are still

several indicators that need to be improved. City

branding is an essential concept following the actual

identity situation to never forget the city. The city

branding of Pesisir Selatan Regency with the tagline

Negeri Sejuta Pesona resulted from visual

observations made by the Government, which started

with the transfer of the Gadiang Monument to the

border between Padang City and Pesisir Selatan

Regency. The tagline seems to describe a million

natural beauty in every corner displayed by the

geographical and environmental conditions of the

Pesisir Selatan Regency with the beauty of beaches

and marine tourism, which strongly support the

tagline Negeri Sejuta Pesona.

However, the application of city branding by the

Government has not gone through the process of

identifying assets or the identity of a city that can

distinguish Pesisir Selatan Regency from other cities.

The Government's objective stage is to formulate

goals or expectations related to the city branding

strategy. The Pesisir Selatan Regency government

aims to bring in tourists and increase the number of

visits to impact the welfare of the community. It is

under the community's expectations so that more

tourists come to increase income and improve the

community's economy and tourists and investors

better know Pesisir Selatan Regency.

Pesisir Selatan Regency also communicates and

interacts with interested parties, including investors,

tourism industry players, and travel agents. Then the

final step is consistency in conveying messages to

prospective tourists. In this case, the Pesisir Selatan

Regency government has not yet had a high

commitment to always use the tagline "Negeri Sejuta

Pesona" in any promotional products to investors,

travel agents and tourism industry players.

3.2 The Effectiveness of the City

Branding Strategy of Pesisir

Selatan Regency

Measuring the effectiveness of city branding in

Pesisir Selatan Regency, namely presence, place,

potential, pulse, people, and prerequisites, shows

various potentials and efforts to make Pesisir Selatan

Regency a sustainable country of a million charms.

ICoSTE 2020 - the International Conference on Science, Technology, and Environment (ICoSTE)

Picture 1. The City Brand Hexagon by Anholt (2007)

The potential and advantages in the tourism sector

that can be used as a strong identity as a tourist city,

such as the development of the Mandeh area, which

is one of the central district tourism destinations

(DUPK) following Regional Regulation No.2 of 2015

concerning the Tourism Development Master Plan

for the Pesisir Selatan Regency. This plan is applied

by developing tourism, including the Mandeh

Tourism Area, Mandeh Boat Tour, View Point

Mandeh, Greening the Mandeh Area and

Development of a Tourism Resort. Turtle

conservation also has economic opportunities for the

community through the permanent establishment of

buildings such as entrance gates, departure docks and

boats to cross, facilities such as water booms and

water bikes built from aid funds and the operational

benefits of the turtle conservation area attraction of

tourists to visit.

In addition, there are historical heritage sites such

as the Shipwreck site in the Mandeh area, which is a

Dutch merchant ship with the name Boelongan

Nederland which sank in Mandeh waters after being

bombarded by Japanese soldiers in the era of World

War II around 1942, which is currently the choice of

the shipwreck. Tourists who do diving activities and

enjoy the underwater scenery.

Another famous tourist attraction is the Cingkuak

Island Corocok Portuguese Fortress site as a historical

relic of the 1500s in the Painan region. Island tourism,

culinary, arts, cultural tourism and events also can be

developed as a tourist destination for visiting. The use

of the city branding of Negeri Sejuta Pesona has

resulted in the creation of new tourism such as the

Carocok beach landmark, the I Love Painan landmark

located in a city park, the Rabab Pasisia "Babiola"

monument and the adipura monument, which

received a positive response from tourists visiting the

Pesisir Selatan Regency.

Another impact of the application of city branding

is an increase in people's income in tourist destination

areas through culinary sales and from events or

festivals held by the Government, one of which is the

annual routine held in conjunction with Pesisir

Selatan's anniversary on April 15. Every year, there is

a langkisau festival held by the local Government. In

this festival, visitors can enjoy village children's

games, the election of Pesisir Selatan tourism

ambassadors, a national level beach volleyball circuit,

and a paragliding championship held at the top of the

Langkisau. Tourists can enjoy views of the Salido

coastline from a height. The peak of Langkisau is also

used as a location for paragliding athletes to practice

and participate in competitions. At present, there are

also regular tourist events that the local Government

fully manages and the tourism industry community in

Pesisir Selatan, namely the traditional Balinese

cultural event Balimau Paga, which is carried out by

the community to welcome the month of Ramadhan,

fishing competition events, beach volleyball,

paragliding, rowing, mountaineering, bike and others.

Tourists visit tourist attractions and enjoy the typical

culinary delights available such as Palai Bada,

Pinukuik, Mangkuak Badeta, Putu, Sate Lokan and

Rendang Lokan. Behind the potential, the seriousness

of the follow-up for the city branding of Negeri Sejuta

Pesona by the Government still needs to be improved

in terms of the facilities provided to tourists, such as

inadequate transportation both sea and land, as well

as physical facilities such as toilets, parking lots,

markets, souvenir shops, hotel facilities, homestay,

tour and travel still need more management and

development by the Government so that tourists feel

comfortable and want to visit Pesisir Selatan

Regency.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study reveal that the city branding

strategy of Pesisir Selatan Regency has only adjusted

to the objectivity and communication stages. The

stages carried out by the Government are only limited

to formulating goals or expectations to be achieved

and communicating with parties interested in

developing tourism in Pesisir Selatan Regency.

Meanwhile, the identity and coherence stages

need to be added. It is provable in the application of

the city branding Negeri Sejuta Pesona, the

Government has not gone through the process of

identifying assets or the identity of a city that can

distinguish Pesisir Selatan Regency from other cities,

and the inconsistency of the Government is using the

tagline "Negeri Sejuta Pesona" in any of its

promotional products.

City Branding Strategy in Tourism Sector Development

The strategy for the city branding of Negeri Sejuta

Pesona is still ineffective, as evidenced by the

decrease in the number of tourist visits and the lack

of seriousness in the follow-up to the city branding of

Negeri Sejuta Pesona by the Government in terms of

facilities aimed at tourists.

REFERENCES

Chaerani, Y.R., 2011, Effect of City Branding on City

Image (Solo City Imaging Study: The Spirit of Java,

Journal of Marketing, Vol. 2, 14-19.

Crotti, R., Mirashi, T. (Eds.), 2017, The Travel and Tourism

Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum,

Geneva.

Fahmi, Fikri Zul, McCann, Philip, Koster, Sierdjan, 2015,

Creative Economy Policy in Developing Countries:

The Case of Indonesia, Urban Studies, Vol. 54, No. 6,

1367-1384.

Hazime, H., 2011, From City Branding to Re-brands in

Developing Countries: An Approach to Qatar and Abu

Dhabi, African Journal of Business Management, Vol.

5, No. 12, 4731–4745.

Herget, J., Petrů, Z., Abrhám, J., 2015, City Branding and

Its Economic Impacts on Tourism, Economics and

Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 1, 119-126.

Hultman, M, Yeboah-Banin, A.A, Formaniuk, L., 2016,

Demand and Supply-side Perspectives of City

Branding: A Qualitative Investigation, Journal of

Business Research, Vol. 69, No. 11, 5153-5157.

Kemenparekraf, 2018, Data Kunjungan Wisatawan

Mancanegara Bulanan Tahun 2018, retrieved from

http://www.kemenpar.go.id/post/data-kunjungan-

wisatawan-mancanegara-bulanan-tahun-2018.

Megantari, Krisna, 2018, Penerapan Strategi City Branding

Kabupaten Ponorogo “Ethnic Art of Java”, Aristo, Vol.

7, No. 1, 130-146.

Qu, H., Kim, L. H., Im, H. H., 2011, A Model of

Destination Branding: Integrating the Concepts of the

Branding and Destination Image, Tourism

Management, Vol. 32, No. 3, 465– 476.

Rusadi, S., Wedayanti, M.D., 2019, Strategi City Branding

oleh Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Siak Dalam

Peningkatan Daya Tarik Pariwisata, Jurnal Wedana,

Vol. 5, No. 2.

Yuristiadhi, G., Sari, S. D. L., 2017, Strategi Branding

Pariwisata Indonesia untuk Pemasaran Mancanegara,

ETTISAL Journal of Communication, Vol. 2.

ICoSTE 2020 - the International Conference on Science, Technology, and Environment (ICoSTE)