Viral Marketing in Tourism: A Creative Tool to Promote Rest Area as a Tourist Destination (Case Study on Banjaratma Rest Area Km 260B)

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.200818.037How to use a DOI?

Keywords

viral marketing, tourism, heritage, social media, rest area

Abstract

Indonesia has many old buildings of historical value that are partially stalled. With innovation and creativity, one of the old buildings formerly a sugar factory in Banjaratma, Brebes, Central Java, was successfully renovated and functioned as a toll road rest area as well as a tourist destination and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) center. Inaugurated in March 2019, Banjaratma Heritage Rest Area Km 260B is currently the only rest area with a heritage concept in Indonesia. This rest area was built by maintaining the original structure of a sugar factory that was built in the Dutch colonial era, precisely in 1908. Its uniqueness makes the rest area in Trans Java toll road viral on social media. This study aims to look at aspects of viral marketing and social media communication in promoting and building public awareness about rest area as a tourist destination using descriptive qualitative research with the case study method. Data obtained from interviews with manager and visitors to the rest area, field observations, documentation, library research, and internet data. Data collection techniques were carried out by triangulation with inductive analysis. In conclusion, something unique and different will quickly become viral on social media. This research has practical implications as a viral marketing success story in promoting heritage destinations. Besides, it also became a model for the development of rest areas with the concept of heritage tourism destinations in the future.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Inda Susanti
AU  - S Firman Kurniawan
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/08/19
TI  - Viral Marketing in Tourism: A Creative Tool to Promote Rest Area as a Tourist Destination (Case Study on Banjaratma Rest Area Km 260B)
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd Jogjakarta Communication Conference (JCC 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 163
EP  - 167
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200818.037
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.200818.037
ID  - Susanti2020
ER  -