12 CHAPTER III DISCUSSION A. Description of ASITA Surakarta Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Surakarta is an institution in Surakarta. ASITA provides headship to the communal efforts of travel agencies in Surakarta. ASITA Surakarta is located in Brigjend. SlametRiyadi No. 275 Surakarta, Central Java. Besides engaged in travel agency, ASITA is also the one of the institutions that follow on improving tourism potency of Surakarta. The government of Surakarta appointed ASITA Surakarta to help promotes tourism potential in Surakarta by organizing several events held every year. These events have been scheduled in the Surakarta calendar event. 12
13 ASITA and Department of Culture and Tourism Surakarta work together to prepare the agenda of the events that will be held in Surakarta. STRUCTURE OF MANAGEMENT DPC ASITA SURAKARTA 2013-2017 Advisory Board Supervisory Committee Manners Daily Management Board Secretary Treasure PR and Promotion Human Resources and Education Domestic Outbond Data Ticketing Inbound Effort and Funds Hajj and Umrah
14 B. The activity during job training There are four division of volunteer in Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015; (1) transport division; (2) secretariat division; (3) seller division; (4) buyer division. The writer did the job training as a volunteer in buyer division. Volunteer works by its on free will does not have purpose for finacial. The activities that done by the writer are: 1. Writing Sponsorship Letters The first day of job training, the writer got a job to make sponsorship letters that will be given to some institutions that are willing to be a sponsor of the event. a. Become Advertising b. Batik Gunawan Setiawan c. Batik Pria Tampan d. Ganep s Bakery e. Solo Wholesale Center (Pusat Grosir Solo) f. Joglo Semar Tabloid g. Department of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Dinas Koperasi dan UKM) After writing sponsorship letters, the writer went to the institutions and submits a sponsorship letter to the office head of the institution.
15 2. Writing Permitting Letters Besides, the writer was also asked to make permission letter to use Mangkunegaran area as the location of the activities, such as (1) the pendopo of Puro Mangkunegaran for lunch for the guests on the first day, (2) the yard of Mangkunegaran area for parking the bus, (3) and permission letter to sellers in the night market to open their booths longer than usual. 3. Meeting with Staff of Citilink Airlines Citilink Airlines also became one of the agencies that we are appointed to be one of the sponsors in Bengawan Solo Travel Mart event. To ask them as the sponsorship, the writer met the staff of Citilink to submit a sponsorship letter. 4. Volunteer Recruitment This event needed some volunteers to handle the event. The writer and other volunteers was asked to look for some college students to be volunteers in this event. One of the committee suggested seeking volunteer from English Department and college students of Sebelas Maret University. We were given command to ask permission to the department to find some college students who are willing to be a volunteer for this event.
16 5. Helping to Edit Guidebook Table Top is the main event of BTM, each guest will get a guidebook. This guidebook contains things related to Surakarta such as tourist attractions, culinary, culture, events, etc. Before the event was started the writer must make sure that everything goes well, including the guidebook. The writer helped to check the contents of the book, ranging from design of picture, words error, etc. After that, the writer and other volunteer took it to the printing press to edit the handbook. 6. Following up buyer In this event, the committees worked together with the owners of travel agents around Indonesia, moreover travel agents from other country which are called buyers. Buyers come from travel agents in indonesia or foreign countries. To make sure their arrival and participation in this event, the committees of the event followed up to the buyers. There are several ways to follow up; by phone, by email, by fax, by short message, and blackberry messenger. After that, the writer made database about buyers who join this event. There were many buyers interested their event. But, some of them cannot attend this event. 7. Participant enlistment Bengawan Solo Travel Mart was followed by 43 sellers and 35 buyers. Sellers are tourism stakeholder from Surakarta and around such as
17 hotel, restaurants, travel agencies, and etc. Meanwhile, buyers came from travel agents in Indonesia or foreign country and each travel agency sent their delegate and co-delegate to do a transaction with seller. 8. Organizing promotion materials A few days before the event, the writer and other volunteers helped to arrange promotion materials from the sellers such as brochures, vouchers, souvenirs, etc. C. How ASITA Promoted Tourism Potentials in Surakarta Through Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 Solo is one of the cities in central java which has many tourist destinations. There are so many tourist attractions that could be visited by tourists. There are culture, culinary, and landscape in Solo city. To promote the tourism potency of Surakarta, the government of Surakarta appoints ASITA as one of the institutions that participated in promoting tourism potential of Surakarta. As an appreciation from ASITA, ASITA Surakarta held an event to promote tourism potential of Surakarta. The main purpose of ASITA to hold this event is to make Solo city become the Top of the Mind. The purposes of this event are to increase competitiveness of other
18 destinations, improve relationships with other local tourism, develop and create new attractions. One of the ways of ASITA to promote Solo city is to hold an event. The event is named Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 (BTM). The theme of BTM this year is Back To Nature, Respect the Culture. The event contained activities to promote tourist destinations of Solo city which has not been known by people yet, so that the buyers are more interested in the tourism potential of Surakarta. 1. Description of Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 Bengawan Solo Travel Mart is one of the events held in the Solo city once every year. This event was held in 2009 under the name Borobudur Travel Mart. In 2010 the name of Borobudur Travel Mart was replaced with Bengawan Solo Travel Mart, now the name of Borobudur Travel Mart is used for the annual event which was held by the province government of Central Java.
19 Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 was held on 13-15 February, 2015 in Aston Hotel Surakarta. This event was an activity that brought buyers meet the sellers. Buyers are travel agents that exist in Indonesia and even in other countries. While sellers are hotels, travel agents, restaurant, and tourist destinations around Solo City. The 4 th Bengawan Solo Travel Mart is one of commitments from the Department of Culture and Tourism Surakarta with tourists association to develop, promote, and introduce the Tourism Potential Areas to all travelers in Indonesia. This activity was initiated by Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) DPC Surakarta as a contribution of Private Firm to help local government promote tourism destinations of Surakarta. The ASITA s hope is to maintain the destinations of Surakarta as the main destinations for domestic tourist particularly. With Bengawan Solo Travel Mart which is working on the domestic market, ASITA looks forward to the future to introduce and develop the tourism potential of the region, especially Solo city, as well as to educate people to be more concerned with the nature and the local culture in creative package that is always dynamic (www.btm.com).
20 2. The purposes of Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 event has several purposes, such as: 1. As the media promotion of the tourism potential products from some regions. 2. Improve cooperation between the government and tourism stakeholders. 3. Media presentation of a product or package tourism Solo Raya. 4. Increase public appreciation of the importance of the tourism industry in moving the regional and national economy. 3. Implementations: The implementations of the event are: 1. Department of Culture and Tourism Surakarta 2. DPC ASITA Surakarta 3. BPC PHRI Surakarta 4. BPPIS Surakarta 5. HPI Surakarta 6. Airlines
21 4. The activities in Bengawan Solo Travel Mart 2015 arranged by ASITA ASITA has a way to promote and introduce the tourism potency of Surakarta by arranging activities in tourism places which have purpose to promote the tourist destinations of Surakarta. 1. Solo City Tour Solo City Tour was the first activity done by the buyers. Solo city tour was planned to show the whole Solo city, from the culture, culinary, also shopping centers in Solo. The buyers were invited to go surround the city by bus. They were invited to visit Mangkunegaran Palace, Triwindu Ngarsopuro, Klewer market, and several shopping centers in Solo. The purpose of Solo city tour is to introduce the cultural heritage which still exists, introduce the special culinary of Solo, and also introduce the development of Surakarta. 2. Camping Camping was one of the interesting activities in BTM event. Appropriate with the theme of "Back to Nature, Respect the culture", the committees chose TAHURA as a camping area. The beauty of nature and the fresh air surrounded by trees, TAHURA is enjoyable place to be a place of camping. The buyers were not only camping, but also had some activities there.
22 Besides, in the evening the committees and the buyers had activity entitled "Bonfire above the Cloud". In this activity the buyers were invited to enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the forest at night. They made a campfire to reduce the cold, while barbecuing together, singing together, etc. Before that they had did an activity that might be the most enjoyable activities. Under an overcast sky, in the cold atmosphere of the forest, they were each given a luminous balloon and one paper. They could write their dreams on the paper and hung it on the balloon. After that, the balloon flew together. Dozens of glowing balloons were floating in the air to bring our dreams and hope to come true. Then continued to sing together. 3. Sukuh Temple As we know Solo has historical places. One of them is Sukuh Temple. This temple is also one of the tourist destinations promoted in the event. Sukuh temple is a temple which has its own story. This temple is the last witness of the triumph of Hindu kingdoms in Java. The complex structure of Sukuh temple is very unique compared with the complex structure of other temples in Indonesia. Therefore, many experts say that this temple is the result of acculturation of Hinduism s belief in the area. This temple is considered to be quite controversial. This is because there is a symbol of sexuality found in the temple complex. Symbol "lingga" and "yoni"
23 can be found in the relief or statue there and the symbol fertility is obvious, without being told by others we will know the meaning of that symbol (www.indonesia-tourism.com/central-java/sukuhtemple.html). To introduce that place, ASITA put the activity to visit this temple in the list of activities. ASITA hopes the buyers are interested in this place, so that this historical place will be known by travelers interested in this place, so that this historical place will be known by travelers. 4. Kemuning Tea Garden The vast expanse of tea garden, also fresh air makes the Kemuning teagarden attractive to tourists. The tea garden is located between Sukuh temple and Cetho temple. In Kemuning, we can enjoy the green tea garden that is vast. The buyers can explore the garden tea through tea walk. Besides, they can enjoy a cup of hot tea and genuine mountainous area with a good view of green tea gardens. they can not only walk in the tea garden or enjoy its view, but also camp there. The camping ground is located in the tourist area, Segara Gunung camping area. Many local people who come to this place, but there are tourists from outside the area too who do not know the sights of this Kemuning tea garden. Therefore, ASITA chose this place as one of the attractions to be promoted.
24 In this event, the committee of BTM 2015 chose Kemuning tea garden as one of the tourist attractions to visit. Not only walking around enjoying the beautiful nature of green tea garden, but also doing outbound activity. During the outbound, buyers were invited to surround the tea garden. Before that, buyers were made happy with variety of fun games. The purpose of this activity was to attract the attention of buyers to help promote this tourist spot. So, hopefully there would be more tourists from other Solo city that visit the Kemuning tea garden. 5. Sangiran Archaeological Museum Sangiran archaeological museum is an area where the archaeological excavations of prehistoric human fossils Pithecanthropus Erectus (Java man) are found. The fossil was firstly discovered in 1936 by archaeologists from Netherlands. This museum is the only archaeological museum in Java. The museum contains human skulls, bones of animal, also an overview of life in antiquity. Not many people know about the existence of this museum in Solo city region. ASITA Surakarta chose the Sangiran Archaeological Museum as one of the attractions to visit, because ASITA wanted to further introduce that Solo city has archaeological museum which is not owned by other cities.
25 6. Dinner in Ngarsopuro The dinner in Ngarsopuro was one interesting events which must not be missed. The dinner entitled 'Ketaman Asmoro' was made to increase the love of Indonesian cultural diversity. The committee wore puppet character costumes, and the buyers wore their traditional costumes. The purpose of this costume concept is to introduce the puppet characters that exist in Indonesia, especially in Central Java. While the dress code of the buyers areaimed at introducing the diversity of culture in Indonesia. 7. Table Top Table Top is the main event in the BTM events. The event was held on February 15, 2015at 08.00 a.m.at the Aston Hotel Solo.Table Top is an activity of buyers and sellers meeting each other to sell their respective products. The sellers presented their products that will be sold to the buyers. After that, they made a transaction. Usually the sellers provided additional forms of souvenir gift, voucher or other objects to the buyers. The sellers are hotels, restaurants, tourism objects, travel agents, etc., and the buyers are existing tour and travel agencies outside Solo city, and even from overseas. Table Top activity was expected to increase tourism in the Solo city. Due to this event, the buyers will be more interested in the
26 tourism potencies of Solo and certainly will bring more tourists to visit to Solo.