Gaze the Struggle of Others: The Representations of Rural Places and People of Indonesia in Tourism Media for Australian Tourists

Abstract

This study contributes to understand the representations of Indonesian rural destinations in tourism media (online and offline) and the social reproduction of the on-site experiences from Australian tourists. The study analyses qualitative data from media produced between 2016 and 2018, online reviews about rural destinations, and full-day participant observations involving Australians. The findings highlight the contested representation of tranquil rice fields and the Indonesians as the exotic locals to be gaze upon for Australians. In conclusion, the framing of Indonesia for Australians expresses the unjust reproductions of tourism media to exercise the existing power relations.

“Dream Now, Travel Tomorrow”: Communicating the Nation Branding of Indonesia through Tourism-Based Social Media

“…The main question is why this type of imagery is absent. Previous research projects (Murti, 2020;Murti & Ratriyana, 2021) which indicate similar findings in tourism brochures of 448 regions in Indonesia argue how Indonesian tourism still embraces the postcolonial paradigm of tourism by which only the exoticism of locals and rurality become interesting imageries for western tourists to come to the global south.…”

“…However, realistic objects and messages should also be conveyed by understanding the negotiation of nation complexity and multiple identities of its places and people. These identities may not only be about tranquil and rural imageries, but also Indonesian urban settings, street vendors, modern buildings, and/or regular Indonesians, who live in a regular/modern type house (not traditional), which in our observation, appears absent in the social media environment of 'Wonderful Indonesia' (Murti, 2020;Murti & Ratriyana, 2021). The communication of nation branding through tourism-based social media shows only an exclusive, limited, portrayal focused solely on certain aspects of expectation, rather than the realistic diversity of Indonesia as a complex nation.…”

“…The absence of humans and animals in the most part creates the illusion of creating a contrast with the type of urban audience's everyday life which is full of people with high and fast-paced mobility (Zhou, 2014;Murti & Ratriyana, 2021). The objectives are to provide space for the audience to perceive a peaceful state of mind and a tranquil ambiance which is free of worries (Cohen, 2004;Murti, 2020) (Figure 1).…”

Online incivility in times of Covid-19: Social disunity and misperceptions of tourism industry in Poland

“…Researchers have discussed representations of people, places and tourismrelated practices along with their social impact. These have been, for example, stereotypical representations of Japanese tourists (Beauregard 1999), representations of Indonesian rural destinations in Australian online and offline media (Murti 2020), British print media coverage of South Africa (Hammett 2014), social media users' representations of particular tourist destinations (Zhao et al 2018), as well as re-conceptualisations of gambling tourism in Macau (O 'Regan et al 2019), Korean American community newspapers' representation of risks and benefits involved with medical tourism (Jun and Oh 2015), or even representations of "overtourism" in the online news media (Pasquinelli and Trunfio 2020). In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic the role of media has been discussed with respect to the impact of misleading media coverage on Chinese individuals and China, and possible implications for tourism marketing and tourist behaviour during times of crisis (Wen et al 2020, see also Zhang and Xu 2020).…”

Handling Covid-19 in Sampang: leadership and local elite public communication strategy

“…As the ruler of the formal authority, the village head is hierarchically more active in realising programs instructed from above, such as the sub-district head, district head and so on (Akbar et al, 2020;Murti, 2020). On the other hand, as informal elites, the village heads also have to develop their initiatives to advance the village.…”