THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GASTRODIPLOMACY BY INDONESIA MINISTRY OF TOURISM THROUGH TOURISM PROMOTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (2014 – 2018)

Abstract

Indonesia is a rich country with its cultural diversity and the beauty of its tourist destinations within. The Indonesian government sees that richness as a potential that is being utilized to increase the attractiveness of tourism. Thus, during the administration of President Joko Widodo began to prioritize the tourism sector which can be seen from the existence of several legal documents and policies governing tourism to support the implementation of tourism promotion. As a further step in the tourism promotion strategy, the Ministry of Tourism has conducted several direct tourism promotion activities to several countries in the world including the United Kingdom through festivals, exhibitions and sales missions. In that activities, Indonesia always carries Indonesian local foods and drinks to attract the attention of British citizens. That activity is in line with one of the theories in International Relations called gastrodiplomacy which is part of soft power and public diplomacy. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to prove that Indonesia has implemented the practice of gastrodiplomacy through tourism promotion in the United Kingdom during 2014 – 2018. In identifying that, this research uses a qualitative method which using official reports from the Ministry of Tourism as the primary data as well as utilizes books, journals, and articles as the secondary data source. From these studies, the researcher found that Indonesia has implemented the practice of gastrodiplomacy by bringing 23 traditional foods and 21 drinks through tourism promotion activities in the United Kingdom.