REDISCOVERING PHOTOGRAPHY AS TOURISM MARKETING MEDIA IN BALI

From Colonial to Digital Age

Abstract

Balinese exotica documentation at the early of the 20th century has become a magnet for tourist arrivals in the activities of photographers. Beginning to photograph people's and natures, photography then plays an important role as a media for promoting Bali in the 1920’s. The tourism promotion media is outlined in the form travel guides, published by the colonial government in various needs. Observing this, it is necessary to review the chronology that built the promotion media from historical perspectives from the colonial to digital era. With the use of descriptive qualitative methods, this article refers to the aesthetic theory and history of photography in terms of technical and ideational in reading the media for promoting Bali tourism - who the photographer is, and how the spread of the promotional media. The image of the island of paradise that was built through bare-breasted Balinese women encouraged the attraction of the flow of mass tourism to Bali. Until the current digital era, when Bali has fundamentally changed a lot. Culture is no longer the only attraction. The loading of various digital photos of Bali on social media has become a new form of marketing in Bali as a world tourism destination.