Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews

eISSN: 2395-6518, Vol 7, No 5, 2019, pp 468-473

https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.7553

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BOOST TOURISM

ECONOMY: A CASE STUDY OF ATLANTIS LAND SURABAYA
Slamet Riyadi1, Daniel Susilo2, Siska Armawati Sufa3, Teguh Dwi Putranto4
1
Faculty of Business and Economics, Dr. Soetomo University, Indonesia, 2,3Faculty of Communication Science, Dr.
Soetomo University, Indonesia, 4Faculty of Political Science and Social Science, Airlangga University, Indonesia.
Email: 1*[email protected]
th th th
Article History: Received on 28 July 2019, Revised on 30 August 2019, Published on 07 October 2019

Abstract
Purpose: This research has a purpose to know how PT. Granting Jaya implementing a digital marketing strategy to
promote the Atlantis Land Surabaya theme park in the field of one of the tourism services located in Surabaya city. The
Mayor of Surabaya has established the Atlantis Land area as an integrated marine tourism area since 2017. Ria Kenjeran
Beach (Kenjeran Park) previously managed by the Government of Surabaya.
Methodology: This study uses a qualitative approach and interview techniques for collecting material that is done with the
question and answers verbally unilaterally face to face.
Main Finding: The results of the study found that PT. Granting Jaya prefers to use Social Media as a Digital Marketing
Strategy is a way to promote a new brand, build preference, and increase the visitors of Atlantis Land Surabaya through
Instagram Strategic Marketing.
Implications/ Applications: This research can have implications for the selection and use of promotions more precisely
through social media. Because the novelty in this study can be applied to attracting the number of visitors in the world of
tourism, especially in Surabaya and surrounding areas.
Keywords: Atlantis Land, Surabaya, digital marketing strategy, Instagram, marketing strategies, tourism.
INTRODUCTION
Companies or organizations will not develop without marketing, this is very important because it can be one of the
company's successful reference in managing its business, as well as in marketing the business in the field of tourism. The
strategy of promoting tourism is not just the strategy of the central government. Each region must also have the initiative to
create a marketing strategy potential tourism to the world by presenting unique events.
Tourism in Indonesia has featured a real role in contributing to the economic, social and cultural life nation (Santoso &
Negoro, 2019). The number of employment opportunities for people in this field more increasing, the income of the state
from the tax and foreign exchange sector is increasing, the social conditions of the communities involved in this sector are
increasing, the nation's culture is gaining appreciation (Panuju, Susilo, & Sugihartati, 2018). From such circumstances, the
tourism sector in Indonesia is an important economic sector. This making Indonesia's tourism sector a vital sector in terms
of sources of foreign exchange earnings. The geographical location of Indonesia is located between the Asian continent
and Australia and tropical climate makes Indonesia has a diverse culture and abundant natural wealth. This strategic
location is also the one making Indonesia has a lot of Tourism Attraction and Objects Tourist Attractions, all of which are
spread across various regions in Indonesia so Indonesia has many tourist destinations (Wright, 2015).
Surabaya as one of the main cities in Indonesia to become the economic center of East Java with a densely populated, not
only inhabited by local residents but also migrants looking for livelihoods in Surabaya. The density of Surabaya city
activity with industry, education, business and so forth really need the entertainment area for its citizens, so in some spot of
Surabaya city be found amusement park, such as: Surabaya Carnival Park, Transmart Studio Mini and recently there is
Atlantis Land Park which is considered to rival Universal Studio of Singapore.
Atlantis Land amusement park as a one of the travel destination is the largest theme park in Asia today, located in Kenjeran
Park (Kenpark) of Surabaya. The interesting theme architecture from the outside is very cool, and the various facilities
presented is very spectacular. Atlantis Land Kenjeran concept inspired by Universal Studio of Singapore and designed by
Australian architects. Thus becoming one of the latest and most popular attractions in Surabaya.
The Mayor of Surabaya has established the Atlantis Land area as an integrated marine tourism area since 2017. Ria
Kenjeran Beach (Kenjeran Park) previously managed by the Government of Surabaya, now after being rebuilt and renamed
Atlantis Land managed by PT. Granting Jaya cooperates with investors from Singapore as well as Australia. Among the
amusement park that is built is the theme park with the typical feel of Surabaya. Atlantis Land has a different concept with
an existing theme park, for example, Marine Tourism Lamongan, or Universal Studio Singapore or even Disneyland Hong
Kong. The fishermen's village around the Kenpark area will not be evicted, but the rearrangement will be more organized
and orderly by maintaining the beautiful of Surabaya as part of the attraction of the tourist destination.

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Actually, Ria Kenjeran Beach (Kenjeran Park) area is also targeted by developers of Ancol tourist park. As reported by
Surabaya Post on April 4, 2011 edition, that PT. Pembangunan Jaya Ancol is targeting the areas of Surabaya, Medan, and
Balikpapan as a step to expand the entertainment and recreation business that already exist in Jakarta. However, recent
developments show that the developers of the Ancol recreation park were not involved in the Atlantis Land Surabaya
project with consideration of a concept that is certainly different from the development of Ancol Tourist Park.
The development of the era demands all people to innovate. One is in the field of marketing communication where many
companies and organizations are increasingly seeing the importance of an integrated promotional strategy. Belch and Belch
state the growing concept of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) because marketers recognize the importance of
strategically integrating various communication functions rather than allowing them to operate separately (MacKenzie,
Lutz, & Belch, 2006).
Due to its status, which is still categorized as a fresh tourism car in Surabaya, Atlantis Land is still under the building. Thus
by indirectly constructing the picture of Atlantis Land re-branding Kenjeran Park as it still has the status of one region and
one company auspices PT Granting Jaya (Windriati, Darmawan, & Romadhan, 2019). So this study aims to find out how
PT. Granting Jaya applies a digital marketing strategy to properly promote Atlantis Land in Surabaya, because Social
media development in Indonesia, especially Instagram, has changed the paradigm in Indonesia and data from several
studies have shown changes in the use of conventional public relations media towards the use of information and big data
technology over the past five years (D Susilo, Prabowo, & Putranto, 2019).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Digital Marketing is a generic term for marketing activities of targeted, scalable, and interactive product or service
products or by using digital technology to achieve and provide a direction of change for customers and retain them. The
main purpose of this activity is to promote a brand, build preference, and increase sales through various digital techniques
marketing (Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2015). Various kinds of digital marketing activities include search engine optimization
(SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, marketing
campaigns, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display
advertising, e-books, optical disks, games, and various other forms of digital media. Its activities can also be extended
Non-Internet channels, such as mobile phones, providing digital media services (SMS and MMS), and social media.
Digital marketing market management can be categorized based on the benefits received and the use of digital marketing
markets. To improve the marketing management of digital markets, Marketers need to concentrate on relationship-based
customer relationships (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). Due to the development of innovation in marketing came the concept
of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a planning process marketing communications that are specifically
designed to ensure that all messages and communication strategies delivered on all channels are unity and consumer-
centered. IMC has a role to introduce the concept comprehensive planning to evaluate the strategic role of various elements
marketing communications, such as public relations, advertising, direct sales, promotions sales, and interactive marketing,
to provide clarity, consistency, and influence maximum communication. The goal IMC wants to achieve is to influence
communities with promotional elements to the level of cognition, affection, and conformity (Ruswanti, Gantino, &
Sihombing, 2019).
In fact, it is not just the business organizations that implement the IMC strategy within promoting their goods or services.
Community organizations, NGOs, and communities more and more people are realizing the importance of having a
promotional strategy continuous. Digital marketing is a phenomenon that is slowly bursting to the surface, with much
greater efficiency and smaller costs, this way of marketing is much more selectable marketers to market the products, with
a budget spent much smaller than the conventional marketing budget, not a few circles in the world tempted to implement
it. Not only that, according to a survey conducted by Adweek, from 5000 world marketers, at least 70% of marketers are
ready to budget the full budget for this one marketing method. The reason, when viewed in terms of capital and profit, this
method uses a relatively small capital but has a doubling advantage (Rowley, 2008; Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).
Social media has essentially altered the process of customer decision-making, and a more advanced perspective has
emerged over the past decade of how customers interact with brands. Like the travel industry sector, and clarify how the
participation of social media benefits intelligent tourism marketers (Hudson & Thal, 2013).
Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS) face many financial growth difficulties. Tourism is regarded as a feasible means
and, at times, merely economic growth (Pratt, 2015). In many nations, tourism has given sufficient foreign exchange.
Visiting tourists will enhance social interaction with individuals around the main tourist attractions by adjusting well in the
economic, social and cultural areas. In the field of economics, namely the State foreign exchange revenue, the beneficial
effect of tourism operations is (Soebagyo, 2018).

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Many tourism venues at multiple points of location in one area or region, making the tourist business managers must find the
right way of marketing based on the target market while keeping up with the latest developments, especially in the field of
digital marketing technology. Gordon Moore founder of Intel, states every 20-24 months of technology will grow twofold,
this theory is called Moore's Law (Moore, 2005). So also with the world of marketing, always growing from year to year.
Facing the competition of entertainment business or tourism attractions are very tight, Atlantis Land Surabaya do not want to
miss in terms of promotion and marketing of entertainment services that manage by PT. Granting Jaya. The development of
technology with all its ease of use and also a very wide range, PT. Granting Jaya to take advantage of digital marketing in
forming and building the image in the field of tourism services along with promotional strategies.
METHODOLOGY
This study uses a digital marketing strategy approach which is one of the alternatives to promoting the field of tourism
services of Atlantis Land Surabaya. The formulation of the problem in this research is about how PT. Granting Jaya
implementing a digital marketing strategy to promote the Atlantis Land Surabaya theme park in the field of one of tourism
services located in Surabaya city. This study uses a qualitative approach, Bogdan and Taylor suggest that qualitative
methodology is a research procedure that produces descriptive data in the form of written or oral words of the people and
behaviors observed (Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, 2015; Taylor & Bogdan, 1992).
Interviews in qualitative research are discussions that have a purpose and are preceded by a number of informal questions
(Rachmawati, 2007). Through interview techniques to Adi Surya (key informant) as a marketing manager, and Visitor
(informant) of Atlantis Land Surabaya theme park. Interviews are a way of collecting material that is done with question
and answer verbally unilaterally face to face, and with the direction and purpose set, to get a picture of the phenomenon to
be studied, obtained from a number of data, researchers in qualitative research get data from the results of interviews,
observation, and documentation, then researchers review all the results of the data, understand, and organize into the
categories relevant to the data source.
DISCUSSION
From several methods of digital marketing strategy, PT. Granting Jaya utilizes social media as the main way of attracting
and promoting Atlantis Land Surabaya. Basically, the use of social media itself is used as a market. That is, marketers will
promote products marketed through social media. The social media that are generally used as target marketers are
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest. It is definitely the selection of social media as a digital marketing
strategy that has a special reason because previously had done the analysis of potential visitors as a target market.
Instagram, with more than 700 million total monthly active users, now claims over 8 million accounts using business
profiles. Brands want to achieve targeted demographics, engage customers and drive true social value through their
Instagram marketing strategy. Nearly 60% of Instagram users are between 18-29 years of age. To achieve these precious
demographics, Instagram is an extremely competitive network. And as individuals join Instagram in droves, brands have a
distinctive chance to engage with their supporters (Gilmore & Pine, 2002). Consumer selection consideration as one of the
reliable ways by PT. Granting Jaya to promote Atlantis Land is a consideration of the age side of social media users.
Because Atlantis Land Surabaya is an Object Tourist Attraction that has the concept of the theme park so that the targeted
market is among teenagers to young people.
However, brand success on Instagram requires more than appealing pictures to be published, it is the result of a thoughtful
approach, a well-defined brand identity based on visual creativity and efficient community management. Instagram’s focus
on visual sharing In addition to your products, it provides a distinctive platform to showcase your culture and individuals
and services. The mobile nature of Instagram is perfect for showing captured or in-the-moment visuals. This gives
followers a more personal chance to interact with the brand. It also helps the company Instagram engagement in a way that
feels more casual and instantaneous than other networks.
Various spots that available in the Atlantis Land Surabaya very Instagram able (very cool to display in Instagram outlook)
for visitors to post a variety of interesting photos and then posted on social media. Indeed this is the advantage of this
tourist location, capture the opportunities of social media trends of the present by creating various interesting angles off to
be used as a photo object for the visitors. When one of the visitors of Atlantis Land Surabaya posted a photo with the
selection of a particular theme on their Instagram profile and the inclusion of the posted photo location and the use of
mention to other users on Instagram will further make the tourist location more viral in social media. As with all social
networking, Instagram works best when the brand uses it to form relationships with other users (Daniel Susilo & Putranto,
2018). It's not about posting photos using the platform; it's about engaging in and/or forming the community around
photos.
There are many methods on Instagram to construct and/or be part of society. Using hashtags (#) may never have
encountered users otherwise. Liking and commenting on the pictures of other individuals involves consumers with the
larger group (and often helps develop their own supporters as individuals reciprocate). Participating in campaigns on

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Instagram aimed at promoting a worthy cause can lead to a higher good. Sharing event images and videos can help
followers feel like they're in the action and are a real part of the community. Hashtags used by PT. Granting Jaya as an
effective tool to make the name of Atlantis Land Surabaya become more viral and famous as a current issue in the city of
Surabaya, especially In the tourism sector.

Figure 1: Instagram of Atlantis Land Official

The use of Hashtags #AtlantisLand and #Kenpark and many more is one of the keys to connecting between Instagram users
that facilitate them in finding information about Atlantis Land when they first heard about this theme park as attractive
tourism in Surabaya city located in Kenjeran Park. So for foreign tourists from outside of Surabaya, the existence of
hashtags is easier to get information for them in determining the choice of tourism in Surabaya, and even then after they first
get the information from other people or other media than they seek it from social media.

Figure 2: The Kind of Hashtags about Atlantis Land Surabaya

The inclusion of a location in a photo posted by a user account makes Instagram, it easy for other users to find an interesting
location in the photo. Some points of location in Atlantis Land Surabaya can be used as a photo object by visitors so that
other connected user accounts may be interested also to visit the place.

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Figure 3: The Instagram Account of Visitor of Atlantis Land Surabaya

Instagram is one of the social media that can be used as a promotional product or service. Social media Instagram is created
so that smartphone owners will feel that the camera installed is not in vain (Mahardika & Farida, 2019). Instagram is a
digital filter, and share it with various Social networking services, including those owned by Instagram. One of Instagram's
unique features is cutting the image into a square shape, so it looks like an Instamatic Kodak camera and Polaroid. In
addition, Instagram also can be directly connected to other social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram is also capable of doing the photo editing process before it is uploaded to the network. Photos uploaded are also
not limited to a certain amount.
It is a pride for every visitor of Atlantis Land to post some of the photos they have taken through Instagram because for them
to exhibit photos on Instagram is sharing the work in terms of the art of photography. By listing the hashtags and the location
where the photo was taken in some spots in Atlantis Land Surabaya as well as sharing information so they can pride
themselves for having visited the phenomenal theme park in Surabaya area.
It is a pride for every visitor of Atlantis Land to post some of the photos they have taken through Instagram because for them
to exhibit photos on Instagram is sharing the work in terms of the art of photography. By listing the hashtags and the location
where the photo was taken in some spots in Atlantis Land Surabaya as well as sharing information so they can pride
themselves for having visited the phenomenal theme park in Surabaya area.
Due to the power of social media as refer by (Daniel Susilo & Putranto, 2018), the pride and curiosity of netizen became a
new variable to be considered as the most strong variable to boost popularity of new tourism destinations. In the era of
Internet of Things, behaviour of social users became hazard determinant to reach the successful marketing of new brand
tourism destinations.
CONCLUSION
PT. Granting Jaya prefers to use Social Media as a Digital Marketing Strategy is a way to promote a new brand, build
preference, and increase the visitors of Atlantis Land Surabaya through Instagram Marketing Strategic. Instagram is easy to
use by prioritizing visual appearance so that it attracts more attention from social media users than on Facebook or Twitter.
Listing the hashtags and the location where the photo was taken in some spots in Atlantis Land Surabaya as well as sharing
information to every Instagram user’s account that is follow @atlantislandofficial account.
So that researchers provide input to the owners of other tourist attractions can use Instagram as a medium in the promotion.
And in subsequent studies, researchers hope there is research on the significance of the uses of social media in tourism
promotion. This research has limitation on using only qualitative data, further research can be exploring measurement
impact of curiosity of netizen comparing with number of visitor of new brand tourism destinations. Other new Media
Measurement methods like Digital Discourse Analysis can be used to comparing with these data findings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A project of this magnitude requires a network of support. We are particularly grateful to the Marketing Manager and all

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visitors of Atlantis Land Surabaya for making this research possible. We will continue to develop research on digital
marketing strategy, as well as our future research project on marketing and public relations in Indonesia.
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