Yogyakarta is on its way to become Java's hub

Yogyakarta is on its way to become Java's hub education

Sri Wahyuni, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Quietly but surely, Yogyakarta is promoting itself abroad in its bid to make itself the hub for Java's trade, tourism and education. A set of promotional, official visits to the neighboring countries has been planned, both for government officials and the private sector to address these goals.

Invest Pro, which is a small, unofficial team comprising volunteer members of different expertise having the same concern for the province's development, has also been established to provide provincial government executives with the input and analysis needed for decision-making.

It was also with this Invest Pro team that Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, accompanied by Provincial Secretary Bambang Susanto Priyohadi, recently visited Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to meet local government officials as well as the business community.

Among prominent figures that the sultan met during the Singapore-Malaysia visit were Singapore's ministers of transportation and education, Malaysia's minister of manpower and top Southeast Asian business figures, including the owner of the Shangri-La hotel chain and senior management of the Four Seasons group.

"The result so far has been quite promising. Some businesspeople that the sultan met expressed an interest in investing in Yogyakarta and helping the provincial government to design a development plan best suited to the region," Bambang said, adding that there existed a plan to develop Yogyakarta into a city of education of international standard.

Bambang also said that strong criticism emerged, too, during a meeting with business figures. This included the tourist industry, which they criticized as not being well promoted.

"We were reminded to take the lead, especially as we have Borobudur, a world-class attraction. We were also told to forget the difficult, picky U.S. tourist market and concentrate more on Europe," Bambang said.

During the visit, the sultan, who is also the ruler of Yogyakarta Palace, also had a chance to visit the Perbadanan Kemajuan Kraftangan Malaysia (Malaysian Craft Council) in Kuala Lumpur to look for possible cooperation opportunities to market Yogyakarta handicraft products in Malaysia. The sultan's wife, GKR Hemas, similarly, met with the Malaysian prime minister's wife to promote Indonesian batik products.

An official visit was also made to Malaysia's prominent pewter industrial center, Royal Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, to see how the well-known pewter products were made. Pewter is an alloy consisting mainly of tin, in which small amounts of antimony and copper are added to provide strength.

"We want to develop the same products back home, in Yogyakarta style of course, especially in Kotagede, well-known as Indonesia's leading silverwork center," Bambang said.

Hundreds of traditional silver craftsmen live in Kotagede. However, besides its famous name, Kotagede is very dependent on a foreign supply of silver as the raw material. Therefore, when there is disruption in the world supply of silver that causes the price to rise significantly, most craftsmen are forced to stop production, as has been happening recently.

"By also producing pewter products, the raw material for which is available back home, hopefully they will no longer be too dependent on the foreign supply of raw materials," Bambang explained.

Parallel with the sultan's visits for trade, investment and the education sector, more technical tourism promotional activities involving the private business community were also carried out in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. National flag- carrier Garuda Indonesia Yogyakarta and the Yogyakarta branch of the Association of Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) became the main sponsors for these particular activities.

"The main objective is to make Yogyakarta the hub of Java's tourism industry. That's why what we are marketing is not just Yogyakarta. We are also selling other Java tourist attractions that can make use of Adisucipto (Yogyakarta) Airport as the hub," Bambang said, adding that the same method was also used in marketing agricultural commodities and handicraft products for export via Yogyakarta.

National flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia established direct, international flights from Adisucipto Airport to Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 21 and to Singapore on March 28. It was because of these flights that the promotional tour, titled "The Amazing Jogja Road Show Singapore-Kuala Lumpur" was held on May 21 through May 26 this year.

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are considered Asia's transit cities for tourists visiting the region. As such, therefore, tour operators in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur also have an interest in marketing Indonesian destinations to tourists entering the region via these cities.

Unfortunately, according to ASITA Yogyakarta vice chairwoman Tusi Kuswenda, most tour operators in both of the cities hardly marketed Yogyakarta at all, despite its being well-endowed in cultural attractions, as most promote only Bali for leisure and Jakarta or Bandung for textiles.

Should tourists come to Yogyakarta, they enter from either Jakarta or Bali. Now that Yogyakarta has established direct flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, direct promotional activities in both countries have become relevant to attract more tourists to the ancient city, as it wants to become the hub of Java's tourism industry.

"Promotion will not and cannot stop -- it's a continuous process," said Tusi, adding that a similar promotional tour was also planned for September this year to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.