THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INDONESIA’S GASTRODIPLOMACY IN THE NETHERLANDS THROUGH TOURISM PROMOTION 2014-2018

Abstract

Indonesia is a country that is blessed with the richness on its tourism destinations. For the recent years, it is seen that tourism sector gave a big contribution to the foreign exchange earnings for Indonesia. It resulted with the seriousness of the government of Indonesia, under Mr. Joko Widodo presidency to include tourism sector as one of the top priorities under his government. Direct tourism activities (festivals, exhibitions and sales missions in the Netherlands from 2014-2018 were the examples of the further implementation of tourism promotion development strategy overseas. Local foods and drinks were involved during those activities as the source of attraction. This research aims to prove that the involvement of foods and drinks in tourism promotion activities in the Netherlands is indicated to another activity related with International Relations study which is the utilization of gastrodiplomacy. In identifying those relation, this research used qualitative method with analytical descriptive approach with the report from the Ministry of Tourism as the primary data along with literature and articles in journals, books and scientific publications both printed and electronic as the secondary data.