Tourism 4.0: Merging Indigeneity with Technology

Susan came to Bali with nothing but her passport, credit card, clothes and undies supplies for a few days, and a stash of cryptocurrency in her phone. Before she came this way, she already planned her travel by looking reviews in Google Places, book a budget accommodation and a motorcycle for one month, and navigate through virtual Ubud Street on her Oculus Rift. Sounds futuristic, doesn’t it? Except all of that is already happening as you read this paragraph.

Before a through explanation of how technologies could enrich tourist experience, let’s give some highlights of the importance of tourism industry for Indonesia. In 2017, tourism industry supplemented US$16.8M to Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves. The Best Tourism Ministry Award was honored to The Ministry of Tourism in TTG Travel Awards event. In 2019, tourism industry is projected to contribute 15 percent of national gross domestic product. By making use of Industry 4.0 building blocks, Indonesia will be able to realize and exceed this projection, and improve the sustainability of tourism industry in the same time.

First of all, culture is the most crucial thing for a place to have. A potential traveler need a reason to go to a new place. Perhaps the air is fresher than her city. Perhaps the river is more beautifully decorated than a river in her neighboring district. Or even, it does not to be more beautiful, just decorated with different themes and arts. But the most important unique thing of a place is their culture. The culture shapes the interaction of people and foreigner, sculpts the shape of their landscape filled with traditional housing, and the history and the society of the locals. You can replicate Eiffel just like China did, but you can’t replicate French.

With virtual reality, potential tourist can experience the culture and society of a place without going all the way there. 360 degree camera is no more expensive as DSLR nowadays, and viewing VR materials and videos is cheaper thanks to VR goggles that let you insert your smartphone to it as VR display. Moreover, sharing VR content is possible since YouTube supports 360-degree video in their platform.

Let’s get back to Susan and their motorcycle. BPS stated that Bali hosts 5.6 million foreign tourist in 2017, and Indonesia hosts 14 million foreign tourist in that year. Most budget traveler get around by renting motorcycle for as cheap as US$5 per day. Meanwhile, some local and foreign traveler packs in group and rent a car to get around. The Industry 4.0 building blocks can help enterprises track and secure their assets.

Internet of Things is one of the building blocks that comprises of an embedded hardware, internet connection, and cloud infrastructure. With IoT, fleet rental company could track each of their motorcycle and car. IoT will also open path to a new business model: a wide-area fleet sharing service. This approach will cut carbon emission and help an area maintain cleanliness of the air.

The last thing of Industry 4.0 building blocks that will improve service excellence is Big Data. By providing real-time analytics, restaurant could suggest a personalized choice of menu for each of their unique visitor. Another use case of big data in tourism industry is giving suggestion of the next point of interest, inviting tourist to extend their stay there.

In April 4 2018, President Jokowi inaugurated Industry 4.0 roadmap. The tourism industry have big potential, and adapting Industry 4.0 will help Indonesia make way for Tourism 4.0. The infrastructure is ready, the people are excited, and there is no reason to not fuse technology with Indonesian indigeneity.

This article was written for Global Network Week 2018 entry.
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