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In the history of the archipelago, it is known that the custom of traveling has been found for a long time. In the book Nagara Kartagama, in the XIV century, King Hayam Wuruk was reported to have toured Majapahit, followed by state officials. He explored the East Java area by riding a cart. At the beginning of the XX century, Susuhunan Pakubuwono X was known as a king who really liked to travel. Almost every year he travels to Central Java while giving gifts in the form of money. In the tradition of the Mataram kingdom, the king or regional ruler must show loyalty to the palace twice each year, while bringing in officials, workers who carry logistics and offerings to the king. From here, Indonesian tourism continues to develop in accordance with the political, social and cultural conditions of its people. The rapid progress of Indonesian tourism itself is inseparable from the efforts that were pioneered several decades ago. According to Yoeti (1996: 24), based on the period of development, the history of Indonesian tourisms can be divided into three important periods, namely: the Dutch colonial period, the Japanese occupation period, and after Indonesia's independence. |
Dutch Colonial Period
Tourism activities begin with exploration carried out by government officials, missionaries or private individuals who are about to open plantation businesses in rural areas. Dutch officials who are subject to the obligation to write a report at the end of each trip.
In that report, there is information about ancient relics, natural beauty, and cultural arts of the people of the archipelago. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Dutch East Indies area began to develop into an area that had tremendous appeal to the claimants of the Dutch state.
They traveled to the archipelago, opening small-scale plantations. Travel from one region to another, from the archipelago to European countries is commonplace, so that facilities and infrastructure are built to support these activities.
Tourism activities during the Dutch colonial period began officially from 1910-1912 after the Governor-General's decision on the establishment of Vereeneging Toeristen Verkeer (VTV), which was a tourist bureau or tourist bureau at that time, was issued. At that time the office was also used by the Dutch private airline KNILM (Koninklijke Nederlandsch Indische Luchtfahrt Maatschapijj). which held a monopoly in the Dutch East Indies at that time.
The increase in trade between the continents of Europe, Asia and Indonesia in particular, increased the traffic of people traveling for various interests. To be able to provide better services for those who travel on this trip, a Travel Agent branch was established for the first time on Jalan Majapahit No. 2 Jakarta in 1926 which was named Lissone Lindeman (LISLIND) which was based in the Netherlands.
Now the place is used by PT. NITOR. In 1928 Lislind changed to NITOUR (Nederlandsche IndischeTouristen Bureau) which is part of the KNILM. At that time, tourism activities were mostly dominated by white people, while the indigenous people were very few, even non-existent. Travel companies at that time did not develop because NITOUR and KNILM held a monopoly.
The growth of hotels in Indonesia actually began to be known in the 19th century, although it was limited to several cities such as Batavia; Hotel Des Indes, Hotel der Nederlanden, Hotel Royal, and Hotel Rijswijk. In Surabaya there was also the Sarkies Hotel, the Orange Hotel, in Semarang the Du pavilion was established, then in the Medan Hotel de Boer, and the Astoria Hotel, at the Grand Hotel Makassar and the Staat Hotel.
The function of the hotel at that time was mostly used for guests from sea passengers from Europe. Given the absence of a motorized vehicle to carry the guests from the port to the hotel and vice versa, horse-drawn carriages similar to the Cikar are used.
Entering the 20th century, the development of hotel accommodation businesses began in other cities such as Palace Hotel in Malang, Stier Hotel in Solo, Hotel Van Hangel, Preanger and Homann in Bandung, Grand Hotel in Yogyakarta, Hotel Salak in Bogor. After motorized vehicles were used and the road had developed, new hotels emerged in other cities such as: Hotel Merdeka in Bukittinggi, Hotel Grand Hotel Lembang outside Bandung, then also stood in Dieng, Lumajang, Kopeng, Tawang Mangu, Prapat, Malino, Garut. , Sukabumi, was followed by other cities.
Entering the 20th century, the development of hotel accommodation businesses began in other cities such as the Palace Hotel in Malang, Stier Hotel in Solo, Hotel Van Hangel, Preanger and Homann in Bandung, Grand Hotel in Yogyakarta, Hotel Salak in Bogor. After motorized vehicles were used and the road had developed, new hotels emerged in other cities such as: Hotel Merdeka in Bukittinggi, Hotel Grand Hotel Lembang outside Bandung, then also stood in Dieng, Lumajang, Kopeng, Tawang Mangu, Prapat, Malino, Garut. , Sukabumi, was followed by other cities.
Japanese Occupation Period
The outbreak of World War II which was followed by the Japanese occupation of Indonesia caused tourism to be very neglected. At that time can be said to be a gray period for the world of Indonesian tourism.
Everything was in ruins. Uncertain opportunities and conditions as well as very difficult economic conditions, scarcity of food, shelter and clothing do not allow people to travel. It can be said that foreign tourist visits at this time did not exist.
In the history of the Indonesian nation's journey, the Japanese occupation was recorded as a painful and difficult time. Fear, rampant anxiety, famine, confiscation of property by the Japanese army made the world of tourism in the archipelago die.
Many public facilities and infrastructure are used as means to block the entry of enemies into an area, and tourism objects are neglected and neglected. Many hotels were taken over by the Japanese and converted into functions for hospitals, dormitories, and hotels that were nicer were confiscated to be occupied by Japanese officers. It can be said that tourism data and information during the Japanese occupation are not available.
After Indonesian Independence
After Indonesia's independence, the world of Indonesian tourism began to crawl again. Even though the Indonesian government was just established, the Indonesian government at that time had thought about managing tourism.
Towards the end of 1946, the Regent of Regional Head of Wonosobo, had the initiative to organize hotel activities in Indonesia by assigning three local officials: W. Soetanto, Djasman Sastro Hoetomo, and R. Alwan. It was through them that the National Hotel Center Agency was born, which was the first hotel organization in Indonesia. On July 1, 1947, the Indonesian government began to revive industries throughout Indonesia, including tourism.
The tourism sector is starting to show its stretch. This was marked by the Decree of the Vice President (Dr. Mohamad Hatta) as Chairman of the Committee for Economic Strategy Thinkers in Jogjakarta to establish an agency that managed hotels previously controlled by the occupation government.
The newly formed agency was named HONET (Hotel National & Tourism) and was chaired by R Tjipto Ruslan. The agency immediately took over hotels in the regions: Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Madiun, Cirebon, Sukabumi, Malang, Sarangan, Purwokerto, Pekalongan, all of which were named Hotel Merdeka.
The KMB (Round Table Conference) in 1949 resulted in another development, considering that one of the contents of the KMB agreement was that all Dutch property had to be returned to the owner. Therefore, in the end HONET was dissolved and then the legal entity NV HORNET was established which is the only body that carries out activities in the hotel and tourism sector.
In 1952 with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, the Inter Departmental Committee for Tourism Affairs was formed, chaired by St. Nazir. Pam Puncak with RAM secretary Sastrodanukusumo. The committee's duties include exploring the possibility of reopening Indonesia as a tourist destination.
In 1953 several hoteliers finally established the Indonesian Hotel and Tourism Association (SERGAHTI) which was chaired by A Tambayong, the owner of the Orient Hotel based in Bandung. The agency was also assisted by S. Saelan (owner of the Cipayung hotel in Bogor), and M Sungkar Alurmei (Director of the Pavilion / Majapahit hotel in Jakarta), who then established branches and appointed commissioners in each region of Indonesia.
SERGAHTI membership at that time covered all hotels in Indonesia. Besides SERGAHTI, several high-ranking state officials whose positions are related to aspects of Indonesian tourism and several members of the community elite who care about the potential of national tourism established the Indonesian Tourism Foundation or YTI in 1955, which later became DEPARI, the Indonesian Tourism Board which became the forerunner of the Department Tourism and Culture today.
Tourism Conditions after the Implementation of Regional Autonomy
The Preamble to the 1945 Constitution (UUD) contains both the ideals, basics and principles of state administration. The ideals for the formation of our country are known as national goals which are contained in the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, namely
- protect the entire nation of Indonesia and all spilled Indonesian blood;
- promote the general welfare;
- educating the nation's life; and
- participate in implementing world order based on freedom, eternal peace and social justice.
The tourism sector, which has gone global and attracted many foreign and even cross-country tourists, is also finally able to become a nation's ambassador to inform the world, the existence of the nation and state of Indonesia.
Become an ambassador to the world and inform the world that Indonesia is an independent, safe, conducive, advanced and prosperous country. This tourism sector can give a picture of Indonesia's face to the international community.
Tourism in the era of regional autonomy is a manifestation of the aspirations of the Indonesian people to advance public welfare and participate in implementing world order based on independence, eternal peace and social justice.
Promote general welfare in the sense that if tourism is properly managed, it will contribute directly to the communities around the tourism area, especially from the economic sector.
Indirectly, tourism provides a significant contribution to regional revenue (PAD) of a region and of course foreign exchange earnings for a country. The direct result arising from the granting of regional autonomy is the existence of "wet areas" and "dry areas".
This is because the potential and conditions of each region in Indonesia are not the same. Regions that are rich in natural resources automatically become “wet areas” in line with the increase in their original revenue from the oil and gas sector, for example, while regions that are minus natural resources automatically become dry areas.
However, it does not mean that regions that are poor with natural resources cannot increase their own regional income, because if we look closely there are several potential areas that can be explored and developed from other sectors such as the tourism sector. In the national scope, the tourism sector is considered a potential sector in the future.
According to the analysis of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) (2016) and the World Bank (2016), the tourism industry in Indonesia has contributed 10% of Indonesia's current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it is estimated that the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is above. industry average.
Ranked 4th as the national foreign exchange contributor, amounting to 9.3%. The highest growth in foreign exchange earnings, namely 13%. Marketing costs are only 2% of projected foreign exchange. Contributing to 9.8 million jobs, or 8.4%. Employment grows 30% in 5 years. Cheapest job creator US $ 5,000 / one job.
Based on this analysis, it is natural that the tourism industry in Indonesia is considered as the mainstay sector for the largest foreign exchange contributor in the non-oil and gas sector. Especially when the Indonesian government launched a regional autonomy program, the tourism industry was an alternative that could be used as a source of regional revenue.
What needs attention is that the development of the regional tourism industry is related to various factors that inevitably influence its development. Therefore, it is necessary to know and understand what are the factors that in fact play an important role in the development of the regional tourism industry, especially in the context of implementing regional autonomy, so that in the end the development of the regional tourism industry is expected to be able to contribute quite a lot to increasing local revenue and encourage regional development programs.
There are several strategic issues (political, economic, social and cultural) related to tourism in the era of regional autonomy, namely: first, during the implementation of regional autonomy in the tourism sector, the emergence of competition between regions, tourism competition that does not lead to increased complementarity and enrichment of alternative tourism. .
This is caused by several factors such as:
- weak understanding of tourism;
- weak regional tourism policies;
- absence of guidelines from the central and provincial governments.
As a result, the development of regional tourism since the autonomy period has been seen more partially. This means that many regions develop their tourism without seeing, connecting and even combining them with the development of their neighboring regions and the closest province / regency / city.
In fact, it tends to increase competition between regions, which in the end will have a negative impact on the quality of the products produced. In fact, tourism development should be cross-province or cross-regency / municipal, and they no longer even recognize boundaries due to advances in information technology.
The second issue is related to the condition of Indonesia's tourism development which still relies on certain main tourist destinations, even though other areas are believed to have a diversity of tourism potentials.
The thing that has emerged from this concentration of tourism activities is that the carrying capacity of tourism development in various locations has been exceeded, while other locations have not developed properly. In addition, the peculiarities and uniqueness of the attractions and tourist activities offered are still not an attraction for the arrival of foreign tourists, because the products offered are not packaged properly and attractively like those of competing countries.
One of the weaknesses of Indonesian tourism products, which causes Indonesia to be unable to compete with neighboring countries is the lack of product diversification and the quality of Indonesian tourism services. Indonesian tourism actors do not pay enough attention to developing new products that are more competitive and in accordance with market tastes.
The third issue relates to the situation and conditions of the region that are different from the potential for natural tourism, economy, cultural customs, livelihoods, population and so on, which require different development patterns, both in terms of methods or methods, priorities, and preparation.
The process of determining this development pattern requires an active role from all parties, so that it is integrative, comprehensive and synergistic. The fourth issue can be seen from the many potential tourist destinations in Indonesia when viewed from the side of their natural and cultural attractiveness.
But unfortunately it cannot be sold or able to compete with tourist destinations both in regional and international areas. This is solely because the available attractions have not been packaged in a professional manner, the low quality of services provided, inadequate interpretations of culture or nature, or because an image has not been built that attracts tourists to come to visit and so on.
Increasing the variety of new natural resource-based products, with the principle of environmental preservation and community participation, is a strategy taken to increase the utilization of regional uniqueness and competition at the regional level with other regions.
Apart from the quality of packaging and service, nature-based tourism products must provide more experience to tourists. Furthermore, tourism product packaging and marketing must take advantage of the latest technology. The tourism products offered must be based on information technology, as an effort to improve services and at the same time increase the ability of regional tourism to penetrate the international market.
As a consequence of responding to the challenges of the issue and achieving these big goals, regions must carry out innovation, creation and development of the tourism potentials of each region by seeking and creating new opportunities for superior tourism products.
For Indonesia, the tourism industry is a prospective commodity which is considered to have an important role in national development, so it is not surprising that Indonesia pays special attention to the tourism industry.
This is further strengthened by the fact that Indonesia has considerable natural and cultural potential which can be used as capital for the development of its tourism industry.
One of the goals of developing tourism in Indonesia is to increase foreign exchange income in particular and the income of the state and society in general, expand employment opportunities and opportunities and encourage the activities of supporting industries and other side industries.
In Indonesia, the development of the tourism industry is included in a priority scale, especially for areas that are poor in natural resources. In accordance with the statement of the International Union of Official Travel Organization (IUOTO) in a conference in Rome in 1963 that tourism is important not only as a source of foreign exchange, but also as a factor that determines the location of industry and in the development of areas that are poor in natural resources.
This shows that tourism as a service industry has a big share in distributing development to underdeveloped areas. In this reformation order, this is the right initial momentum for regions to be more independent in exploring and developing their potential.
This regional independence is manifested in the granting of considerable authority covering all areas of government, except for authority in the fields of foreign policy, defense, security, justice, monetary and fiscal, religion. The transfer of authority is accompanied by the transfer and transfer of financing, facilities and infrastructure as well as human resources in accordance with the delegated authority.
It is a logical consequence for the regions that with the implementation of regional autonomy, everything that is operational is delegated to the regions. In connection with the implementation of regional autonomy, everything related to the development of the tourism industry including financing, licensing, planning, implementation and evaluation becomes the authority of the regions to carry it out. Thus each region is required to be more independent in developing its tourism objects and potential, including promotional financing.
The sources of regional revenue in the implementation of decentralization originate from local revenue, balancing funds, regional loans and other legal receipts. The source of regional original income is a source of regional finance excavated and within the region concerned consists of the results of regional taxes, the results of regional levies, the proceeds from the management of separated regional assets and other legitimate original regional income.
In terms of local revenue, there are several regions in Indonesia that are poor in natural resources so that they cannot rely on their own local income from natural resources. Therefore, the development of the tourism industry in an area is the main reason as an effort to increase local revenue through the utilization of local potentials.
In 1997, the Indonesian tourism industry was estimated to generate indirect taxes amounting to 8.7% of the total value of indirect taxes and in 2007 increased by 9.6% of the total. These data indicate that the Indonesian tourism industry provides a sizable contribution in the field of taxation. The tax sector has an important role in the state budget.
Tax is a source of state revenue which is used to finance routine state expenditures, it is also used to finance national development. Therefore, it is hoped that the contribution of taxes to development will not only encourage the development of a single region, but also promote equitable development in remote areas in Indonesia.
In the regional scope, the contribution of the tourism industry in the taxation sector is expected to increase by developing and utilizing the potential of regional tourism. It's just that tax collection must be carried out wisely, meaning that tax collection must adhere to the principles of justice, legal certainty and simplicity. In the direction of regional independence, the potential for a well-managed and developed regional tourism industry will increase revenue in the taxation sector.
In this case the contribution of taxes and the regional tourism industry apart from being a source of regional revenue, is also intended to finance regional development. Basically, the development of the tourism industry in a region is closely related to the economic development of the area.
The positive impact that can be felt directly by the local community is the regional expansion of employment. This is the result of a well developed tourism industry. For example, with the construction of infrastructure in the area, the workforce will be sucked up a lot in projects such as power plants, bridges, hotels and so on.
To develop the tourism industry in a region, certain strategies and new policies in the tourism sector are required. An interesting idea from Sri Sultan HB X which proposes the concept of borderless tourism policy, which is a tourism development concept that is not only fixed on one object for one area, while its distribution pattern must be further developed without looking at geographic boundaries.
This idea gives fresh air to the world of tourism in Indonesia, especially with the implementation of the regional autonomy system. At least the new policy is an alternative that can be used to develop and utilize regional tourism potentials through inter-regional cooperation programs.
However, what needs to be paid attention here is that the implementation of the cooperation program should not cause conflict which actually has a detrimental impact, so that the goals and development of regional tourism are not achieved.