The perceived destination image of Indonesia: an assessment on travel blogs written by the industry’s top markets By Bernadeth Petriana A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Tourism Management Victoria University of Wellington 2017 1 Abstract The tourist gaze theory suggests that tourists are taught by the destination marketing organisation to know how, when, and where to look. However, the birth of travel blogs has challenged this image as they offer the public “unfiltered” information. Travel bloggers have become more powerful in influencing the decision making of potential tourists. This study employs textual and photographic content analysis to investigate the destination image of Indonesia held by the industry’s key markets; Singapore and Australia. 106 blog entries and over 1,500 pictures were content analysed, and the results suggest that overall tourists tended to have positive images of Indonesia. International tourists are still very much concentrated in the traditionally popular places such as Bali and Jakarta. Negative images of Indonesia include inadequate infrastructure, ineffective wildlife protection, and westernisation of Bali. Natural and cultural resources are proven in this thesis to be Indonesia’s top tourism products. Influenced by their cultural backgrounds, Singaporean and Australian bloggers have demonstrated a dissimilar tourist gaze. The current study also analysed the bloggers’ image of Indonesia as opposed to the image projected by the government through the national tourism brand “Wonderful Indonesia”. The results indicate a narrow gap between the two images. Implications for Indonesian tourism practitioners include stronger law enforcement to preserve local culture and natural attractions, and recognising the market’s preference to promote other destinations. Recommendations for future research are discussed. Keywords Travel blogs, destination image, tourist gaze, destination branding, image formation, Indonesia, Wonderful Indonesia 2 Acknowledgment First and foremost, praise and thanks goes to my Father in heaven for the strength and the many blessings undeservingly bestowed upon me. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Associate Professor Ian Yeoman for his valuable guidance and support. Thank you for always being kind and patient with me throughout the whole process of writing this research. I might really buy that Sunderland’s shirt one of these days. I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Megan Key for her extremely kind assistance in answering my questions and requests. Professor Karen Smith, Dr Adam Weaver, and Dr Christian Schott for their constructive comments and advice on this paper. My profound gratitude goes to my parents and my sister who have never had any interest in my research, but never fail to keep me in their prayers. Words cannot express all that you mean to me. Thank you for your absolute understanding and love. Special mention to the Indonesian student community; Sila, Danang, and my dearest MTM colleagues; Arya, Hanru and Linh. I cannot believe we survived this. I am also grateful to Beverley, Bibiana, Irene, and the St Gerard’s community. Thank you for your unfailing prayers and encouragement. And finally to my friends: Charissa, Felix, Dohan, Theresa, Melisa, Jessica and “my safest place to hide”. Thank you for always making me laugh. I owe much of my happiness to you. 3 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 8 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 THESIS STRUCTURE ............................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................... 13 2.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 13 2.2 TOURIST GAZE THEORY ........................................................................................................................ 13 2.3 IMAGE FORMATION AGENT ................................................................................................................... 15 2.4 TRAVEL BLOGS ........................................................................................................................................ 18 2.4.1 E-WOM PLATFORM ......................................................................................................................... 18 2.4.2 THE ROLE OF NARRATIVES ............................................................................................................... 20 2.4.3 TRUTHFULNESS AND CULTURAL GAZE ............................................................................................ 21 2.4.4 THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN WEB 2.0 .................................................................................... 22 2.5 THE EVALUATION OF DESTINATION IMAGE STUDIES .................................................................... 23 2.6 INDONESIA ................................................................................................................................................ 28 2.6.1 INDONESIA IN GENERAL ................................................................................................................... 28 2.6.2 WONDERFUL INDONESIA ................................................................................................................. 29 2.6.3 THE POLITICS BEHIND WONDERFUL INDONESIA .......................................................................... 31 2.6.4 INDONESIA IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD ........................................................................................ 34 2.7 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 3: Methodology ...................................................................................... 39 3.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 39 3.2. RESEARCH METHOD .............................................................................................................................. 39 3.2.1 PARADIGM ......................................................................................................................................... 39 3.2.2 CONTENT ANALYSIS AND CAQDAS ............................................................................................... 42 3.3 SELECTION CRITERIA ............................................................................................................................. 44 3.4 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................. 47 3.4.1 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................... 48 3.4.2 IMAGE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................. 49 3.4.3 COMPARISONS WITH THE PROJECTED IMAGE .............................................................................. 50 3.5 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................. 51 3.6 STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE METHOD ........................................................................... 51 4 Chapter 4: The Words and Images Used to Describe Indonesia ............................ 53 4.1 BLOGGERS’ PROFILES ............................................................................................................................ 53 4.2 DESTINATIONS BLOGGED ...................................................................................................................... 55 4.2.1 SINGAPOREAN TRAVEL BLOGGERS ................................................................................................. 55 4.2.2 AUSTRALIAN TRAVEL BLOGGERS ..................................................................................................... 56 4.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: WHAT ARE THE WORDS USED BY THE TRAVEL BLOGGERS IN DESCRIBING INDONESIA? ............................................................................................................................. 57 4.3.1 URBAN AND TOURIST SITES ............................................................................................................. 58 4.3.2 NATURAL ATTRACTIONS, TOURISTS’ ENTERTAINMENT AND ACTIVITIES ................................... 62 4.3.3 CULTURE AND PEOPLE ..................................................................................................................... 65 4.3.4 FOOD AND BEVERAGE ...................................................................................................................... 66 4.3.5 ACCOMMODATION, PRICE AND QUALITY ...................................................................................... 68 4.3.6 INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORTATION, ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY ISSUES ............................ 70 4.4 IMAGES USED TO DESCRIBE INDONESIA ..........................................................................................