Abstract:
Indonesia as a country that is well-known for its tourism and culinary wealth uses
traditional foods and drinks as an instrument of public diplomacy towards people of
other countries. The process of implementing public diplomacy through traditional
foods and drinks is called gastrodiplomacy. By practicing gastrodiplomacy,
Indonesia, through the Minister of Tourism served and promoted traditional food and
drinks at the tourism promotion events held directly in the Republic of Korea which
is one of the top ten countries with the highest number of visitors to Indonesia. The
event held in the form of exhibitions, festivals, sales missions, travel shows, and
travel fairs. This aimed to become an allure in making Indonesian culture more
widespread in the society of the Republic of Korea and promote its culinary heritage
as a soft power tool by providing opportunities for foreign publics to interact directly
into their culture. By using a qualitative research method, this thesis will analyze
data obtained in the Ministry of Tourism 2015-2018 event report as the primary
resource and supported by secondary data from news, internet, and journals to find
the dominant traditional foods and drinks promoted by the Ministry of Tourism.
Moreover, this thesis also found that although Indonesia has practiced
gastrodiplomacy, this country does not yet have an official policy in managing
gastrodiplomacy activities toward another country.
