Communicating Natural and Cultural Tourism Destination of North Sulawesi as an Identity

Abstract

Digital campaigns can help the sector of tourism and attract potential tourists' attention. This research aims to analyze the digital tourism campaign of the natural and cultural North Sulawesi contents. A qualitative approach is used through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with local government, private business sector, tourists, and social media contents analysis. Coding and categorization were conducted based on the concepts and dimensions of culture. The findings show that nature and culture were integrated into the brand-building process of tourism destination. North Sulawesi's cultural and natural identities were reflected in the campaign. Social media's utilization and optimization are to disseminate information by tourism destination stakeholders. The information conveyed was in activities, government news, the latest information updates on current issues, and consumers’ testimonies on social media. However, there is still a lack of content. The private sectors of hotels and tour travel agencies have taken advantage of social media as digital marketing communication. In contrast, restaurants and traditional cake sellers still use conventional marketing types instead of using social media. The coronavirus pandemic has caused various corporate sectors to significantly impact the hotel business, hospitality, and travel tour agencies. As a sample in this study, there is still a foreign language capability and understanding inadequacy from some private sectors. This research expects to help local governments and the private sector planning promotional activities, optimizing social media as digital marketing to attract tourists' attention and build a brand identity for North Sulawesi destinations.