Liebe Mitglieder der Austrian-Indonesian Society,

hiermit möchte ich Sie/Euch auf einen interessanten  Vortrag aufmerksam machen, den das Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie der Universität Wien  zusammen mit der AIS organisiert:

Titel: Cultural Tourism in Indonesia: Prospects and Problems

Prof. Heddy Shri Ahimsa Putra (Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta)

Wann: Montag, 17. Juni 2019, 18:30

Wo: Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie, Universitätsstrasse 7 (NIG), 4. Stock, Übungsraum, 1010 Wien

Abstract: 

Today, there are about 740 local languages in Indonesia, an archipelagic country with more than 17.000 islands in Southeast Asia. If we agree with the Indonesian proverb that “Language reflects ethnic group” (Bahasa menunjukkan bangsa), or “Language reflects culture” (Bahasa menunjukkan budaya), it means that there are at least 740 ethnic groups or cultures in Indonesia. With the rise of cultural tourism in the last four decades, the prospects of cultural tourism in Indonesia are thus very good. Unfortunately, they cannot always be materialized. Many problems hampered the development cultural tourism there.

This lecture will focus on the prospects of cultural tourism in Indonesia in general as well as their problems. Indonesia has a lot of potentials for cultural tourism, such as: ethnic performing arts, ethnic handicrafts, ethnic cloth, ethnic foods, ethnic drinks, interesting local religious rituals, unique economic activities, etc. Unfortunately many of these potentials are not developed or transformed into cultural attractions for tourism, due to some serious problems at the national as well local and regional level, such as: lack of capable human resources, lack of a detailed development plan, lack of vision on tourism, lack of coordination in development, lack of understanding of foreign tourists’ interests, lack of serious, long-time research on tourism, etc The lecture will also discuss the government’s strategies to develop cultural tourism in various places in Indonesia.

Heddy Shri Ahimsa-Putra has been Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) since 2008. He completed his Ph.D (1993) in Anthropology at the Columbia University, New York City. He currently is the Chairman of the Senate of the Faculty of Cultural Studies (2012-2020).He has taught as a guest lecturer been teaching at many Indonesian universities, e.g. Universitas Udayana Graduate Program in Cultural Studies (2003-2012) and Universitas Airlangga Graduate Program in Social Sciences (2009-2017). Ahimsa-Putra conducted field research in various parts of Indonesia, such as Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, West Java, Bali, South Sumatra, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Karimunjawa and Bangka. Outside Indonesia, conducted field research in Drente (Netherland, 1981) on local politics, and in Inlay Lake, Southern Shan State (Myanmar, 2005-1006) on social-cultural impacts of tourism.He is the author of ”Minawang – Patron-Client Relations in South Sulawesi” (2007) and ”Strukturalisme Levi-Strauss, Mitos dan Karya Sastra – Analyses of Myths” (2001; 2007).