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International Conference on Tourism and Culture in Asia 2013 FULL PAPER: Deadline 31 st August 2013 TOPIC: Culture, Tourism, and Social Dynamics Sub-theme: Tourism and cultural change Author Title: Meanings, Purposes, and Activities of Suburban Family Tourism in Yogyakarta, Indonesia Name: Janianton Damanik Position: University Lecturer and Researcher Affiliation: Dept. of Social Development and Welfare, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada; Center for Tourism Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia Contact Address: Komplek Bulaksumur, Blok J, No. 3, Yogyakarta, 55281, INDONESIA Tel: 0062-274-564138/Fax: 0062-274-564138 E-Mail: [email protected] ; [email protected] ABSTRACT (max. 500 words) More Indonesian people get involved in the tourist trips. Six years ago, a national survey found out that 52 percent of Indonesian travelled away and this number reached 69 percent in the following 5 years. The survey, however, only presents a general overview of the individual tourist activities. As limited number of studies have been done on family tourism, it is difficult to formulate the map of family tourism need and policy for facilitation despite its phenomenal development in this country. The tourism pattern of individuals and families is also very different, and elaborates the real characteristic of tourism which the Indonesian people are engaged. Therefore, the study intends to specifically discuss the meaning of tourist activities for families and how the meaning is realized in the form of destination choice and tourist 1
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Family Tourism in Yogyakarta 2013

Jan 27, 2023

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Page 1: Family Tourism in Yogyakarta 2013

International Conference on Tourism and Culture in

Asia 2013FULL PAPER: Deadline 31st August 2013

TOPIC: Culture, Tourism, and Social Dynamics

Sub-theme: Tourism and cultural change

Author Title: Meanings, Purposes, and Activities of Suburban Family Tourism in Yogyakarta, IndonesiaName: Janianton DamanikPosition: University Lecturer and ResearcherAffiliation: Dept. of Social Development and Welfare, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada; Center for Tourism Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada, IndonesiaContact Address: Komplek Bulaksumur, Blok J, No. 3, Yogyakarta, 55281, INDONESIATel: 0062-274-564138/Fax: 0062-274-564138E-Mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

ABSTRACT (max. 500 words) More Indonesian people get involved in the tourist trips.

Six years ago, a national survey found out that 52 percent ofIndonesian travelled away and this number reached 69 percentin the following 5 years. The survey, however, only presents ageneral overview of the individual tourist activities. Aslimited number of studies have been done on family tourism, itis difficult to formulate the map of family tourism need andpolicy for facilitation despite its phenomenal development inthis country. The tourism pattern of individuals and familiesis also very different, and elaborates the real characteristicof tourism which the Indonesian people are engaged. Therefore,the study intends to specifically discuss the meaning oftourist activities for families and how the meaning isrealized in the form of destination choice and tourist

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activities. The suburban of Yogyakarta City where dwellerswith different economic, social and cultural backgrounds livein, and is a rapidly growing residential area was chosen asthe location of the study. Mixed-method approach was used torefine the description and analysis of the activities of thesuburban family tourism. A total of 100 households wereselected purposively as samples, which are equivalent to 11percent of the total population. The respondents include oneof the family members, children, mothers and fathers. As anumber of respondents refused to involve in the interview inthe survey and in-depth interview, only 87 respondentscompleted the survey. The data were collected through astructured questionnaire and in-depth interview. Sixrespondents served as the informants for the in-depthinterviews. The study suggests that most respondents areupper-middle aged, well-educated, working in service-basedsector with the position of permanent workers to managers.Family tourism has 3 meanings i.e. enhancing the emotionalties of family and relatives effectively, pleasure andentertainment, and gratitude to God. 36.8% of respondentsinterpreted tourism as an enhancer of emotional ties betweenfamily and relatives, 32.2% took it as pleasure andentertainment, while 27.6% considered it as an expression ofgratitude to God. Very possibly, it indicates that social andcultural rituals in family circle in facilitating familyemotional relations are fading. Visited tourist destinationsare quite varied, but most families (91.0%) chose domesticdestinations particularly in Java Island. This choice isallegedly related to the concentration of tourist attractionsand accessibility in Java, the most populous island. The nextfinding is that largely of respondents chose natural touristactivities. More than one third of respondents chose thenatural tourist activities when visiting tourist destinations.This choice is directly related to the background of theenvironment they live in. Crowded residential areas bringabout inconvenient feeling, and it is away from the naturalenvironment. Ecotourism-oriented trend along with itsenvironmentally friendly products also contributes to theirchoice on the nature-based activities. Therefore, family

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tourism should be facilitated with prioritizing pleasure andintegration of family members.

Key words: family, tourism, meaning, activities

Introduction

Tourist activities are increasingly popular in the lifeof the Indonesian people. The number of people traveling ontour continues to increase, especially in the last five years.In 2008, in four provinces namely North Sumatra, East Java,West Java, Central Java , 56 to 85 percent populationtravelled out of town (BPS, 2008; Ministry of Tourism andCreative Economy, 2013). The travelling habit is verydistinctively spotted in various tourist areas during theholiday season or weekends. Several mass media reported that amassive number of visitors flocked in the main tourist areasin Jakarta some time ago (Anonymous, 2012a). The similarcondition also occurred in the other major cities in Java(Anonymous, 2012b).

The causes of the increased trips are commonly associatedwith the social change. In the context of the Indonesiansociety, the rapid social changes, among others, are marked bythe fewer children (van Klaveren, et al., 2010), the decliningrole of the extended family (LaFave and Thomas, 2012),increased household income, the increasing proportion of womenwho get involved in the job market along with high demands toachieve professional occupations (Niehof, 1998). Rapidurbanization at approximately 3.1 to 3.6 percent per year(Firman, 2012), has resulted in a highly dense urbanpopulations which has implied in limited space for relaxation.Rigid and timely work rhythm (school, office work, etc.) alsodemands the family to use the remaining free time efficiently.In short, people are currently enjoying the "demographic and

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economic bonuses" which spurs the movement to outside thehouse for the tourist activities.

Most studies on family tourism in Indonesia are not indepth. Two important issues are overlooked during theanalysis. The first is the logical explanation behind theincreased number of people traveling on tour. Does the habitof travelling mean something else beyond just enjoying the"demographic and economic bonuses?" The second, the touristactivities are so far perceived as the individual movement.This perception likely ignores the social motives and patternsof collective trips in family travels (Ditjen PemasaranBudpar, 2008). The family as the analysis unit is veryessential for understanding motives, meanings and behaviors intourism which can be the implications of the rapid socialchanges.

The alledgedly significant changes in attitude andbehavior towards tourism also occur among the people inYogyakarta. In the province, the movement of the population,in terms of out-of-town trip is nationally very high(Directorate General of Marketing for Culture and Tourism,2008). The status of Yogyakarta as the education city with thestudents from the areas throughout the country can be one ofthe factors generating the high intensity of the trip. Thisstatus is alledgedly hidden by the image of Yogyakartaprovince (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, DIY) as the national touristdestination.

The paper aims to further explore the involvement offamilies in the tourist activities related to theirinterpretation of the activities. In particular, two issuesbecome the focus of analysis, e.g. first, what collective tourmeans for families; and second, how the meaning ismaterialized in different choices of tourist activities. Thecritical discussion on this issue will help clarify theconcept of family tourism from the tourists’ perspective and

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is expected to help formulate the policy for the Indonesianfamily welfare.

Tourism and Family

In this paper, two main concepts are used interchangeably.The first is the concept of tourism, which is "a journey forbusiness, pleasure, or education often involving a series ofstops and ending at the starting point" (http://www.merriam-webster.com). This concept describes precisely the nature oftourist activities e.g. the recreation and pleasure. Tourismis seen as a condition that frees people to evaluate theirpurpose of life (Shuterland, 1957). Some sociologists perceivetourism as a representation of the present activities ofindividuals alienated from the community environment to seekan authentic experience elsewhere or to keep track of pastcivilizations (MacCannell, cited by Cohen, 2008). Tourism isalso associated with escapism from a uniform pattern of lifetriggered by the restraining industrialization system(Krippendorf, 1984; Hennig, 1999). The economists associatetourism with the availability of leisure time and money;therefore, tourism is considered specially valued commoditiesor consumer goods (Jaeckel and Wollscheid, 2007). People"sell" time by working to earn money and then spend for theirleisure time.

In the industrial society, free time is the worker’s rightallocated to families, friends and neighbors "to do what theywant" (Hunnicutt, 2008). When they work routinely for economy,they consciously alienate themselves from the neighborhood.The isolated time is compensated with spending time togetheroutside the work to “gather” with the original environment.Thus, leisure time and tourism connect and boost integrationand intimacy (Agate, et al, 2009), making it difficult toseparate them from life. The view is summed up in Kelly’sstatement (1978) as follows:

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“Leisure is human activity that encompasses freedom andconstraint, autonomy and multilayered influences,personal identities and social roles, creation andadaptation, self-definition and situational limits,states of mind and physical action”.

Tourism activities are indeed a rational choice. Prior totravelling, people consider some appropriate criteria,primarily related to the factors with satisfaction scores(Mill and Morrison, 1985). Therefore, a lot of factors affector determine the decision to travel on tour. Despite thesignificant role of economy, social and psychology (Mill andMorrison, 1985), the decision to travel depends on how theyperceive it. If people perceive tourism as reinforcingintegration (Hazel, 2005) and embodying particular social andpersonal meaning (Kelly, 1978), they will likely travel ontour with activities positively linked with the above meaning.

Tourism is also associated with the work context in termsof meaning. Tourism is the product of changes in what workmeans (Shuterland, 1957; Enzensberger, 1996), believed thatwork should produce pleasure. Work should be collaborated withtourism to enable a balanced life. That is why tourism isinseparable from the life even serving as the right, identityand lifestyle (Roberts, 2006). It means that work and tourismboth become an identity.

The second is the concept of family, which is thesmallest unit in society and is socio-culturally tied by alegitimate marriage between husband and wife and live togetherwith their children (Hull, 2003). In Indonesia, the familyrefers to the extended family with a very strong role in thequality of collective life (LaFave and Thomas, 2012), despitethe trends for nuclear family in the major urban areas (Hull,2003). Families often serve as a laboratory of social changethat indicates shifts their function and role in the society(Herbert, 1988). The family members contribute (broad) in

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social aspects (reinforcing identity) to the economic aspects(financial support). In general, a family associates theactions taken by the family members as representing the familyas a whole. The family is also authorized over any individualdecisions taken by the family members despite recognizingthe individual rights and autonomy. This understanding impliesthat seeking happiness and solution of problems faced by thefamily members are placed on the foundation of the family, noton the individual interests. Thus, studying the individualbehavior should be in the context of the family (Aslan, 2009).

In terms of the tourism, the family thinks that leisuretime has functions (Trost, 2008); tourism fills the leisuretime to enhance the emotional ties among the family membersand solve the daily life problems (Agate, et al, 2009).Tourism also contributes in promoting recreation for childrento acquire the knowledge, attitudes, values, skills andmotivation of leisure (Iso-Ahola, 1982). Prior to dealing withthe new environment (Aslan, 2009), the family commonly applycertain norms i.e. the family head is more authorized indetermining the kind of tourism. In a developing society,however, harmony and interdependence among involved parties indetermining the tourist activities is preferred (Walker, etal, 2005). Tourism is thus placed similar to other socialrites in the spectrum of family.

The other studies focus on the motives and effects offamily tourism. As mentioned, there are six motives forfamilies to travel on tour (Hazel, 2005). The first andprimary motive is associated with the physical recovery andrejuvenation (McIntosh, et al, 1995; Venkatesh 2006). Routinework is very prone to the stress; therefore, tourism serves asthe stress release. Second, tourism is able to reduce themental and physical burden generated by a stressfulenvironment. Third, tourism reinforces disrupted socialrelations due to limited space and time among the familymembers. Fourth, tourism is related to developing people in

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new activities, such as hobbies and materializing wishes.Fifth, tourism also nurtures independence in learning toenhance personal responsibility to the new and healthierenvironment. Sixth, tourism enhances the family ties (Hazel,2005).

Methods of the StudyTwo settlements in the outskirts of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

were choosen as the location of the study. Inhabited bydwellers with diverse economic, social and culturalbackgrounds, and are rapidly growing areas, the settlementsbecome the consideration for the study. The diversebackgrounds are expected for various understanding of tourism.

Mixed-methods were used to combine the qualitative andquantitative methods in collecting, analyzing and combiningthe results of the study (Clark and Creswell, 2011; Johnsonand Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The methods are method is adequatelyeffective to explain the social phenomenon as the object ofthe study with a combination of relatively different methods(Denzin as quoted by Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The datawere collected with semi-structured questionnaires previouslytested to ensure the validity and reliability of the data. Inaddition, the in-depth interviews were also conducted toexplore the understanding and interpretation towards tourism.In total, the interviews ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 hours perinformant and were conducted repeatedly over a period ofapproximately 1 month.

A total of 87 samples selected purposively for the specificresearch objective i.e. describing the meaning of tourism. Therespondents refer to one of the family members: children aged15 years and older, father and mother. Four enumerators usedsemi-structured questionnaires to collect data on thecharacteristics of the social, economics, and demographics,travel patterns and perspective about tourism. During the

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process, frequent re-scheduling of the meetings with therespondents resulted in longer period of interviews.

The Respondents’ ProfilesTourism activities are strongly associated with the

demographic structure of the family. This study recorded itthrough the gender distribution of the respondents. More thantwo-thirds of the respondents were male (Table 1).Approximately 93 percent of male respondents are householdheads, compared to 21 percent with the same status in thefemale respondents. The figure illustrates that the positionof the husbands or men as the household heads remains strongin the society.

Most respondents belong to the productive age group orthe golden age. Associated with the economic activities, theyhave fairly considerable access to various types of jobs.Therefore, the opportunities to gain more revenues remainhuge. The productive age also achieve indicates that therespondents have better physical abilities for travelling ontour.

The respondents'education level isrelatively high. The data

are indeed not surprising dueto the advanced formaleducation in Sleman Regency.The number of highly educatedpopulation is larger than theone in other regencies in DIYas related to the number ofemployment in colleges oruniversities.

The jobs in the tertiarysector dominate the

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Profiles Descriptions

N %

Sex Male 59 67.8Female 28 32.2

Age (years)

20-29 4 4.630-39 22 25.340-49 26 29.950-59 21 24.1>59 14 16.1

Education

HighSchool

18 20.6

Diploma 16 18.4Undergradu

ate41 47.1

Graduate 12 18.3Source: Field Survey, 2012

Table 1. The Socio-demographicProfiles of Respondents (N = 87)

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livelihood of the respondents (Table 2). This has allegedlybeen associated with the semi urban geographical location. Thejobs in the private sector are quite dominant and in harmonywith the rapid tourism economic development and educationalservices in this area. To illustrate, the trading, hotels, andrestaurants contributed 22.8 percent in 2010 in Sleman GDP andwas made the main source of the region’s economy (SlemanRegency Administration, 2006).

The livelihoods which are concentrated in the servicesector indicate that the society is developing into the phaseof capitalism (Hong, 2004). In terms of the job types,however, approximately 62 percent respondents remain thesubordinate workers. The jobs equal to the labors in thebusiness units or the regular staff in the bureaucracy, whichrepresent the occupations of most people. Thus, such touristsare of lower-middle economic class. Interestingly to note, thetype of jobs still gives significant disposal income fortravelling on tour. It simply means that the currentoccupational condition in Sleman implicitly gives asignificant contribution to the people’s tourist activities.

Table 2 indicates that most (40 percent) respondentsreceived income ranging from 2-3 million rupiahs, followed bythe income group of 1-2 million rupiahs (28 percent). InYogyakarta Province, the rate of income belongs to the lower-middle class. To compare, the average income per capita ofthe population in Yogyakarta in 2010 was Rp 249,629 / month orabout 3 million rupiahs/year (BPS DIY Province, 2010). Ifapplied to the respondents, every family - assuming that eachfamily comprises five members including the family head, willresult in 1.25 million rupiahs per month or 15 million rupiahsper year as the family income. The primary data reveal thatthe median respondents’ income is between 2.0 - 3.5 millionrupiahs per month. Thus, the average income of respondents’family members is far above the average income per capita ofDIY population.

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Table 2. The Economic Profiles of Respondents (N = 87)

Note: **not stated. Source:Field Survey,2012The Meaningof Tourism

The

informants’ understanding towards tourism is fairly good andspecific. Nearly similar to the experts’ opinion (Peterson,1981), the informants also perceived the concept ofrecreation as a part of tourist activities from the desire tospend the leisure time. They differed recreation from tourism

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Economic Profiles

Descriptions N %

EmploymentStatus

Traders 13 14.9Civil Servants/Soldiers

14 16.2

Employees 41 47.2Retired 9 10.3Housewives 5 5.7Others 5 5.7

Types of Employment

Owners/managers 17 19.5Heads/Supervisors

5 5.7

Staff/tenure employees

54 62.2

Freelancers/ independent workers

8 9.2

Others 3 3.4Income Category per month (Rp.000)

< 1.000 2 2.31.000 – 2.000 24 27.62.005 – 3.500 35 40.23.505 – 5.000 9 10.35.005 – 7.000 6 6.97.005 – 9.000 2 2.39.005 – 11.000 2 2.3> Rp 11.500 3 3.4n.a** 4 4.5

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with the perception that “recreation is varied in its form”and land "time-free and can be done at any time”. Unlikerecreation, tourism should be well planned as “related toeffectively and efficiently allotted time, energy and money”.Thus, tourism is commonly long planned considering theallocation of the available resources in every family.

For families, tourism constitutes three meanings, i.e.enhancing family/relatives ties, pleasure and entertainmentand gratitude to God. The first assures that the familiesconsider tourist activities and recreation important as theactivities give positively social and psychological benefitfor the family members. Over one third of the respondentsinterpret tourism asenhancing ties amongfamily and relatives(Table 3). The data canbe more specificallyexplained. In general,the respondentsconsidered family theprimary focus in thereal life and the lasthope for seekinghappiness. Therefore,each rational action taken always refers to the familytogetherness and harmony and enhancing social relations withthe relatives as well. To interpret, the society is apparentlyfacing the vulnerable social communality especially due to thestressful working environment (comparing Orthner, 1975; Bakerand Palmer, 2006). The respondents viewed tourism as a meansof reinforcing the emotional ties within the nuclear andextended family. This phenomenon was also found by the otherresearchers (Shaw and Dawson, 2001). This communal activitybecomes the positive media for maintaining social relationswhich are likely fading away in the urban society.

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Meaning of Tourism N %

Enhancing family/relatives ties

32 36.8

Pleasure and Entertainment

28 32.2

Gratitude to God 24 27.6Empathy and sympathy 2 2.3Proving self-existence 1 1.1

Total 87 100

Table 3.The Meaning of Tourism forFamilies

Source: Field Survey, 2012

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Similarly, the choice for tourist activities as a means forenhancing the communality is based on strong logicalfoundation. Tourist activities free people from routinearrangements such as in working, studying, eating, playing andmany more to the loose, flexible and spontaneous arrangements.The activities generate pleasure and pride for the family tovisit different places. The common pleasure the families enjoyis more valued with the psychological satisfaction or ‘dreamedhappiness” as being able to express stronger togetherness.With the tourism, the families feel stronger emotional tiesamong the family members. The children enjoy excitement anddifferent homy atmosphere.

"It's fun indeed. We played freely there. Mom and Dadjust let us play as we wished. Sometimes we were soexhausted playing. No matter anyway, as long as it wasnot dangerous. Fun…, that’s what we wanted...that wasso fun ….". (Informant B)

The second meaning of tourism refers to pleasure; the oneshared by almost one-third of the respondents (Table 4).Tourism becomes a tool for parents to give pleasure to thechildren and themselves. The ability of parents to provide funactivities for children with tourist activities is describedas "a real pleasure". When traveling on tour, the parents seeand feel how the children enjoy their excitement. Forchildren, playing cheerfully at the beach, walking leisurelydown the shady woods, and staring at the breathtakinglandscape up the hills to enjoying breakfast at the hotelserve as landmark events for them to express happiness. Forparents, it means enjoyment to see the children’s excitementoutside home. Such a condition is apparently hard to createwithin the daily life. Despite that home is the first andprimary place for family gathering, special events generatingcommon happiness are mostly done outside home.

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Well, we were so happy. We and the kids looked forward forit. The vacation….costly, isn’t it? The time is indeedprecious. It isn’t easy, you know, to gather with thekids and relatives. There.., the kids played freely as theywished…. That’s great to see them laughing happily ".(Informant C)

The meaning of this pleasure can be further explored.Pleasure refers to a psychologically relieving condition whensomeone gets free from the routine atmosphere and obtainspositive things. This positive value drives someone to act.Therefore, the informants argued that tourism activities aremedia fro self-release from routine activities. "Freeing selffrom rigid and boring routines” or “Getting rid of themonotonous activities” is often coined to describe the actionsto pause from the daily errands while finding new or differentatmosphere. The above points were commonly called escapism inthe tourism (Burkart and Medlik, 1974) which referred to aneffort to reduce the accumulated burden at work. Escaping fora while from the workload becomes the essence of tourismespecially when it is done along with the family. The mediafor escape is used by those with a strict time use and workrhythm particularly among professional-level workers such assupervisors, department heads and business owners.

Interestingly to note that tourism also constitutesspiritual meaning as the expression of gratitude to God. Moreor less 28 percent respondents argued for the option. Despitethat the spiritual meaning is very subjective, an implicitmessage is conveyed; tourism leads to a deeper understandingof the divine generousity to human beings. Such a feeling isobtained when "we enjoy the natural beauty of His creation" ineach destination.

Tourist Activities

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The respondents chose the tourist activities by consideringthe availability of attraction variety, interests and buyingpower. Vividly, they tended to favor the natural touristactivities (Table 4). This choice is allegedly related totheir background of domicile environment. The denseresidential area has induced cramped feeling and deprived outof their original nature. Therefore, nature-based activitiessuch as tracking “makes us aware of the so good and healthynature ", and the convenience it provides " a gift for thepeople surrounded by the walls of houses, factories and dustpollution during the rest of life ". Similar opinions wererepeated during the interviews with other informants. Thenatural attractiveness in the travelling on tour wasexplicitly stated, that "this sort of natural atmosphere isthe one we are looking for", “unsatisfied before enjoying thenatural scenery nature" and so on. In conclusion, they belongto the group of eco-tourists.

The activity aimed atenhancing socialintegration like visitingfriends and relatives(VFR) are also popular.The activity is the most-chosen one forapproximately 17 percentof the respondents.Compared to the nationalfigure at 45 per cent(Ditjen Pemasaran Budpar,2008), this number isindeed much smaller.

Visiting relativesduring the travelling ontour is common, for

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Primary Activities N %

Cultural tourism (museum, cultural sites,dll)

8 9.2

Enjoying culinary service

12 13.8

Shopping 2 2.3Visiting relatives/friends

15 17.2

Natural tourism 30 34.5Artificial tourism 12 13.8Natural and artificial Tourism

4 4.6

Cultural, natural and artificial tourism

1 1.1

All mentioned 3 3.4Total 87 100

Table 4. The Primary Tourist Activities

Source: Field Survey, 2012

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important social value i.e. enhancing the relationship andcloseness while reducing "feelings of guilt and fear ofmistakenly called arrogant and ignorant." In this context,"the enhanced friendship ties representing socio-culturalfunction of tourism" (Kelly, 1978) is affirmed. Nonetheless,the small number of VFR indicated that recreational activitiesbegan to dominate primary family tourist destinations.

The above interpretation is reinforced by the data aboutthe various tourist activities the respondents did in additionto VFR. Enjoying culinary services and artificial touristactivities (water boom, game centers, etc.) become therespondents’ preferences during the tourist activities. Thesefindings confirm that the growing culinary services todayrepresent the emerging new lifestyle in a semi-establishedsociety (Ansori, 2009). The results of this study also suggestthat the culinary services and recreational activities are ofthe respondents’ favourites. Culinary tourism gives the funimpression and special experience because the respondents"have once enjoyed genuine and unique local food."

Conclusion

Families increasingly feel the monotony of life due to theroutine and boring work; hence, they need a stress reliefcanal. This phenomenon is normal in countries with the rapidindustrial period marked with strict job distribution(Krippendorf, 1984), thus triggering a high demand forrelaxation. To this extent, tourism plays a pivotal role.Tourism occupies a strategic position in the family socialrites as the effective media for physical and psychologicalrejuvenation. Apparently, tourism becomes a new commodityfavored by families for generating common pleasure andenhancing social interaction in the nuclear and extendedfamilies.

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Therefore, it is somehow understandable that the familykeeps prevailing the conventional meaning of tourism i.e. therelaxation of media generated by a combination ofenvironmental factors that is rigid and stifling domicile dueto the impeding work routines. Relaxation is a routinefunction: the more often families 'trapped' by the routines,the greater the need for tourism. The substantial meaningremains focused on the recreational activities which generatepleasure for the families. The meaning determines which typesof tourist activities to choose in the destinations. Theactivities are best able to build a different atmosphere,physical and psychological rejuvenation, pleasure andexcitement will inevitably be the favorite choice in thetourist destinations. It comes with no surprise that therecreational activities directly related to or are done in thewild are the ones most families much prefer.

Three policies should be followed up. First, therelaxation function in tourist activities should befacilitated with improved tourism services based on morefamily needs than the individual ones. Second, increasedsupport for tourism programs in the form of collective holidayincentives to widen the opportunities to enhance familytogetherness and social closeness. Third, extension anddiversification of nature-based tourist attractions as themain attraction should be done. Therefore, policies on tourismdevelopment which are pro-Indonesian families, not pro-international tourists are badly needed. ***

REFERENCES

Agate, J R, Zabriskie, R B, Agate, S T, Poff, R. (2009)‘Family Leisure Satisfaction and Satisfaction with FamilyLife’. Journal of Leisure Research, 41(2): 205-223.

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Anonymous, 2012a.(http://www.wartakotalive.com/detil/berita/106019/Jumlah-Pengunjung-Monas-Naik-10-Persen) retrieved fromhttp://paa2010.princeton.edu/papers/ 101335 , page consulted11.11.2012.

Anonymous, 2012b. “Pengunjung Padati Kebun Binatang Ragunan”,retrieved fromhttp://news.detik.com/read/2012/08/20/155021/1995348/10/60000-pengunjung-padati-kebun-binatang-ragunan, pageconsulted 03.10.2012.

Ansori, M H. (2009) ‘Consumerism and the Emergence of a NewMiddle Class in Globalizing Indonesia’. EXPLORATIONS – a graduatestudent journal of southeast asian studies, 9: 91-92.

Aslan, N. (2009) ‘An Examination of Family Leisure and FamilySatisfaction Among Traditional Turkish Families’. Journal of LeisureResearch, 41(2): 157-176.

Baker, D A and Palmer, R J. (2006) ‘Examining the Effects ofPerceptions of Community and Recreation Participation onQuality of Life’. Social Indicators Research, 75(3): 395-418.

BPS Propinsi DIY. (2010) Indikator Ekonomi Provinsi DIY 2010.Yogyakarta: BPS.

BPS, 2008. Survai Penduduk yang Melakukan Perjalanan, 2007-2008.Jakarta: BPS.

Burkart, A J and S Medlik. (1974) Tourism: Past, Present, and Future.London: Heinemann.

Clark V L P and Creswell, J W. (2011) Designing and Conducting MixMethods Research. Los Angeles: Sage Publication.

Cohen, E. (2008) ‘Tourism’. In W A Darity Jr., (ed) InternationalEncyclopedia of Social Sciences, New York: Course Technology, The GaleGroup, 8: 398-400.

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