JAKARTADAILY.ID - The "Old City" area in North Jakarta is home to some historic buildings and has been a strong tourist attraction for both domestic and foreign visitors. Likewise, many also depend on the area for their livelihoods.
The number of tourist visits to the old city based on data from the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government in 2019 reached 5,777,291 visitors. That number is not only visitors to the Old City area, but also other interesting tourist sites such as the Puppet Museum visitors as many as 312,081 people, the Ceramic Museum 184,485 visitors, and the Maritime Museum 27,501 visitors.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, restrictions on community activities began to be implemented and at the same time, tourist destinations were also closed to suppress the transmission of the virus, the Old City was no exception.
Cafes and restaurants were closed, onthel bicycle rentals were no longer in service, and the many, many hawkers that sold their wares in the area were either forced to stop their business or look for another place.
As the government regains control of the Covid-19 virus in the city, Covid-19 cases in DKI Jakarta have dropped drastically and the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM) has dropped to level 1. This situation brings good news for economic actors in the Old City area of Jakarta, although they have to go through a process of re-adaptation.
As tourist sites in DKI Jakarta begin to reopen, an effort is needed to reinvigorate tourism. One of the efforts to open that door is through a series of promotions and the most effective and low-cost promotional medium today, namely through social media. This promotional activity will have an exponential impact if it is carried out by the economic actors themselves.
To achieve this, creative economy actors in Kota Tua Jakarta need moral support from various parties. One of them is through increasing competence or expertise in the visual field, namely through photography training.
Free training
Indonesia TIC, Mula Indonesia, and Lokaborasi which are fully supported by PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BNI took the initiative to organize photography training for economic actors in Kota Tua Jakarta. The hope is that they will be able to independently promote tourist destinations that are a source of income for them.
This photography training activity is intensive and private with a selection process based on interests and coming from various professional backgrounds. Participants explore photography material for free for two days and will continue to be accompanied until they are able to independently.
The material studied includes basic photography techniques using smartphones, lighting techniques, product photos, editing techniques, and each participant will be guided on how to package photos in social media content, write captions, hashtags and increase followers and engagement.
"This activity really helps us and our art workers and photography lovers to introduce the old city tourism area through photography to be even better," said Subagyo, a workshop participant who is also an art worker in the old city area of Jakarta.
As a form of BNI's commitment to caring for MSME actors, especially those directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This activity is a real effort to help move the community's economic activities back to recovery.
"I became more confident in carrying out the task of documenting historical objects belonging to the museum after participating in this activity," concluded Faturahman, who works at the Jakarta Old Town History Museum. (*)
