CITY BRANDING IMLEMENTATION AS A STRATEGY FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN TOMOHON CITY

• Main Author: C.D. Podung, Geraldine
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/81273
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

City branding is a way to highlight the potential and identity of a city to enhance competitiveness, shape its image, and attract tourists. Therefore, city branding becomes a widely used strategy for cities to develop and market their tourism. This research takes a case study of Tomohon City, which brands itself as the City of Flowers. The formation of city branding will refer to its components, which include identity, objectivity, communication, and coherence. Thus, this study will identify the application of the City of Flowers branding in Tomohon based on these components. This research uses a qualitative method with analysis results described descriptively. Furthermore, this study will formulate strategies related to city branding, for tourism development in Tomohon City based on the identification of the city branding application, which will then be analyzed using SWOT analysis and the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) model. The data to support this research is obtained through observation, interviews, and questionnaires for primary data, as well as through document studies and online publications for secondary data. The research results show that the branding of Tomohon City as the City of Flowers is in line with the city's identity. Flowers and tourism become the advantages that the government wants to highlight through this branding, which is communicated primarily through the Tomohon International Flower Festival (TIFF) and secondarily through the presence of various flower gardens, ornamental plants on road corridors, vertical gardens, flower kiosks, and the community's habit of using and planting live flowers. The City of Flowers branding is created to market and introduce the potential of floriculture and the characteristic flowers of Tomohon City globally, supported by the slogan "We Greet The World With Flowers." However, its current implementation tends to focus on the annual TIFF event only. Using USP model, Tomohon flower city branding show it's position in the risky category, which means strategies are needed in order to enhance the brand's advantages and unique selling point, also in order to compete with its competitors. Thus, this study formulate 9 (nine) strategies for tourism development in Tomohon City with branding as city of flower, which include: 1) Emphasizing the flower identity through logos, slogans, and campaigns; 2) Enhancing the image of the flower city through city spaces and gateways; 3) Improving the quality of promotion and marketing of Tomohon Flower City; 4) Increasing community participation in tourism and city branding; 5) Increasing tourism activities that enhance floriculture and reflect the city of flower; 6) Developing tourist segmentation to create tailored tour packages; 7) Creating sustainable city branding through monitoring and evaluation programs; 8) Enhancing cooperation to encourage investment; and 9) Developing smart digital-based technology for education and dissemination of the flower city branding.