Establishing City Branding Strategy for Tomohon Central Tourism Area in Indonesia in Attracting Interest in Visiting Tourists
Beldie Aryona Tombeg
*
Student of Doctoral Program on Environment and Development Studies, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia and Department of Civil Engineering, Manado Polytechnic, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Soemarno
Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia.
Amin Leksono
Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia.
Utami Aziz
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering, University of Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: City branding is a marketing strategy aimed at building a positive image of a city, building differentiation and increasing the city's competitiveness as well as attracting tourists and investors.
Aims: This study aims to determine the city branding strategy in the central area of Tomohon City and see the effectiveness of implementing this strategy in attracting tourists to visit.
Methods: This study used a descriptive qualitative method with data collection through interviews and documentation studies. Subjects on this research were conducted with 3 people from Tomohon City government representatives and 2 people from Tomohon City Tourism Office. The research site is in Tomohon City, focusing on its tourism area. The data analysis used in this research was conducted during data collection and used the interactive model of Miles and Huberman
Findings: The results of this study indicate that the government of Tomohon City together with stakeholders have implemented a city branding strategy that is in accordance with the Anholt city branding concept, although overall it has not been optimally implemented because it is only focused on promoting TIFF as an international event and the utilization of promotional media and community participation has not been optimal.
Conclusion: The Tomohon City Center area already has various cultural activities, characteristics, positive perceptions and names that are known as potentials that can be further developed to attract tourists to visit.
Keywords: Strategy, City branding, visiting interest, tourism, Tomohon City