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Tourism Minister wants GenPI to always be innovative
Members of both GenPI and GenWI are mostly social media-savvy millennials.
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Members of both GenPI and GenWI are mostly social media-savvy millennials. (Shutterstock/File)
On Nov.26, Tourism Minister delivered a message to Indonesian Charms Generation (GenPI).
He mentioned the recent Karetan Market event initiated by GenPI Central Java that has been adopted by several GenPI chapters in different Indonesian cities namely Fishing Market in Lombok (GenPI NTB), Baba Boen Tjit Market in Musi River, Palembang (GenPI South Sumatra) and Siti Nurbaya Market (GenPI West Sumatra).
“I keep on telling GenPI to always be innovative in hosting community activities. Millennials like things that are innovative and in order for GenPI to stay relevant, sustainable and able to attract as many followers and friends their events need to always offer something new,” Arief said.
“For market events, 70 – 85 percent are for the locals, 15 – 30 percent are for the GenPI community, the number isn’t big enough for GenPI but it’s huge in the non-operational return,” he added.
GenPI was initially formed as a supporting team for World Halal Tourism Award (WHAT) in 2015 and 2016. The first GenPI chapter was GenPI Lombok Sumbawa established on Oct. 3, 2016. The community’s work helped Indonesia to win 12 awards at WHAT from the total of 16 categories.
It was also GenPI who asked netizens to vote for Wonderful Indonesia video at the UNWTO award.
Following GenPI's success, Wonderful Indonesia Generation (GenWI) was formed and focuses on the overseas market. Members of both GenPI and GenWI are mostly social media-savvy millennials.
“For their role to be more effective, I encourage GenPI members to become entrepreneurs in their hometowns. We already have online marketplace ITX that is available for all tourism industry players. Through ITX, GenPI can sell tour packages and become tour operators, souvenir sellers, homestay owners and others,” Arief explained.
In his speech, Arief also explained about celebrity endorsers and digital influencers with GenPI belongs to the latter group.
“Digital influencers like GenPI generally promote tourism because they want to, not because they are paid, that's whey they are authentic, credible and trustworthy. Whoever can generate User Generated Content (UGC) they must have higher credibility and trustworthiness,” Arief said.
He moreover said that digital influencers are more engaging than celebrity endorsers and even though celebrities have a larger audience, digital influencers tend to be more relevant and effective in delivering a message to their followers. (asw)
