Analysis of geotourism promotion strategies based on social media in Karanganyar Regency, Indonesia

Karanganyar Regency, known for its captivating mountainous geography, possesses significant potential for geo-tourism development. Enhancing the visibility of the region’s tourist attractions on social media platforms is imperative to capitalize on this potential fully, thus increasing their allure. This study aims to analyze the marketing strategies employed on social media to bolster the appeal of geo-tourism attractions. This research gathers comprehensive and reliable data from various natural tourist locations and relevant agencies using qualitative methods, survey techniques, and interviews. Several notable natural attractions with considerable developmental potential are identified, including Grojogan Sewu, Grojogan Pringgondani, Parang Ijo Waterfall, Jumog Waterfall, Telaga Madirda, and Sapta Tirta Pablengan. Key areas that influence tourism development are identified to foster the growth of these tourist hotspots. These include enhancing marketing and promotional efforts for natural tourist attractions through Instagram, optimizing accessibility to these destinations, and improving facilities and infrastructure. By addressing these aspects, tourists are more likely to be enticed to visit the natural wonders of Karanganyar Regency. The results of this study are expected to reveal effective social media-based marketing strategies for promoting natural attractions on Instagram in Karanganyar Regency. Furthermore, evaluating these strategies will lead to discovering new insights and improvements for leveraging the full tourism potential of the region.


Introduction
As one of the world's largest archipelagic nations, Indonesia boasts an expansive geographical range with numerous islands straddling the equator [1][2][3].This unique geography offers the country abundant natural tourism potential, making it an ideal destination for various travel experiences.Geography examines the Earth's spatial elements and topography, and tourism serves as a conduit for temporary recreational experiences that balance personal pleasure with cultural and natural enrichment [4,5].
The tourism sector is a significant economic driver for regions like Karanganyar Regency, where local governments, empowered by Regional Autonomy Law No. 23 of 2014, can manage various sectors to foster community welfare [6,7].Tourism is a prime sector for local revenue, contributing to regional economic stability and national foreign exchange earnings [8].Tourism potential is an aggregation of attractions that lure visitors to a destination, benefitting the local economy and promoting the well-being of residents [9][10][11].
In the current era, tourism is not merely an economic contributor but an evolving industry that enhances global recognition and creates job opportunities.However, despite boasting natural attractions like Grojogan Sewu, Parang Ijo Waterfall, and Jumog Waterfall, Karanganyar Regency still faces adequate facilities and infrastructure challenges.
In light of this context, recognizing the significance of effective tourism marketing is essential, as evidenced by numerous studies [12][13][14][15].Leveraging geographic segmentation on social media platforms emerges as a promising strategy for disseminating information about Karanganyar's natural attractions and customizing promotional approaches to target specific audience demographics, as outlined by various researchers [16,17].Furthermore, the global trend of promoting geotourism has gained momentum, as seen in numerous initiatives and investigations worldwide [18][19][20].By embracing such marketing strategies and aligning with contemporary practices, Karanganyar can unlock its full tourism potential, thus ensuring a more prosperous and sustainable future for the local community and the broader Indonesian economy [11].
Tourism is pivotal in bolstering Indonesia's economy and is a critical contributor to foreign exchange earnings alongside other sectors such as taxation [21,22]."Tourism potential" encompasses the various attractions within a destination aimed at drawing visitors [23].The development of this potential focuses on boosting regional revenue and elevating the quality of life for local residents, involving a multifaceted approach that considers environmental sustainability, promotional strategies, and improvements in service quality, facilities, and infrastructure [15].
However, despite its abundant natural attractions like Grojogan Sewu, Grojogan Pringgondani, Parang Ijo Waterfall, and Jumog Waterfall, Karanganyar Regency still faces challenges in developing adequate facilities and infrastructure.According to data from the Karanganyar Regency Youth and Sports Tourism Office, the area has seen varying tourist visits between 2016 and 2020, as indicated in the accompanying data tables.Consequently, addressing these shortcomings is imperative to fully capitalize on Karanganyar's tourism potential and ensure a beneficial impact on both local and national scales [24][25][26].The evolution of natural tourism now extends beyond the attractions themselves; it necessitates a collaborative approach between government agencies and local communities, particularly in leveraging social media for promotion.In this digital age, harnessing social media platforms like Instagram [27] as a promotional tool has proven highly effective for amplifying the visibility of natural tourist spots in Karanganyar Regency.Utilizing Instagram offers numerous advantages, including cost-effectiveness, a broad user base, ease of use, and seamless integration with other social media platforms, making it ideal for showcasing visually compelling content [28].
Given the importance of tourism for local development, the government of Karanganyar Regency should prioritize digital promotional strategies.The aim is to facilitate easy access to information about the region's natural attractions, targeting domestic and international prospective tourists.The government can significantly enhance the destination's appeal and drive tourism growth by strategically uploading high-quality images of these attractions.The findings of this study underline the potential for further optimizing the tourism sector in Karanganyar Regency, underlining the importance of embracing modern promotional tactics for long-term success.

Methods
The manufacturing and analysis stages can use qualitative methods, survey methods, and direct interview methods, which are very commonly used in the research you want to do.The research location was carried out in Karanganyar Regency and for data processing using tools such as laptops and several RBI map soft files, data from tourism-related agencies, and previous research related to tourism.By using previous research examples, you can get new research results that aim to study and find out marketing strategy for publication of social media-based natural attractions, Instagram in Karanganyar Regency and evaluate it to obtain new data and improve the strategy for developing tourism potential.

Tools and Materials
This research employs various tools and materials to ensure comprehensive data collection and analysis (Table 2).Laptop devices serve as the backbone for research data processing, allowing for the organization, storage, and evaluation of all collected information.ArcGIS is utilized for spatial data processing and map creation, providing valuable geospatial insights into the study area.GPS technology is employed to accurately determine the coordinates of the locations under study, thereby enhancing the reliability of field data.Additionally, we tap into the Instagram database to gauge the reach of Disparpora's Instagram visitors in Karanganyar Regency, which is critical for understanding social media impact.Data from the Karanganyar Regency Youth and Sports Service is consulted for processing tourist visitor statistics, offering a historical context to the study.BPS (Bureau of Statistics) numerical data is used to process information regarding tourist objects, enabling a data-driven approach to assessing tourism potential.Finally, reference journals serve as scholarly foundations, supplying critical frameworks and theories to guide and validate the research:

Stages of data processing and analysis
The research methodology incorporates qualitative methods, survey techniques, and direct interviews, making it particularly well-suited for exploring the marketing strategies for social media-based promotion of natural attractions on Instagram in Karanganyar Regency.The study is conducted in Karanganyar and utilizes various data processing tools, including laptops, mapping software, and existing research data related to tourism.Data collection involves two key components (Figure 3): field surveys for primary data and archival research for secondary data.Primary data consists of statistics on the number of tourist visits to Karanganyar Regency from 2016 to 2020, sourced from the Karanganyar Regency Youth Tourism and Sports Office.Secondary data is obtained from Karanganyar Regency's Disparpora agency and previous academic studies.
For data analysis, we employ Microsoft Word for text-based findings, Microsoft Excel for numerical data analysis, and ArcGIS software for geospatial representation.The aim is to assess the current state of Instagram-based marketing strategies for natural attractions in Karanganyar and propose enhancements based on the gathered data.

Results and Discussion
Tourism Potential is the development of tourism potential aimed at increasing regional income and promoting prosperity for residents.Of course, it is very concerned about environmental aspects, promotion strategies, increasing regional income, service quality, and completing facilities and infrastructure to make it better for tourists [3].Social media Instagram is an internet-based application used to communicate between people in the form of photo media.The application was launched in 2010 in January, using the application Instagram.The features shown are a photo-taking feature, a photo editing feature, and various effects, and can add photos to other social networks [16,24].
Karanganyar Regency is located in Central Java province with 17 Districts.This research is located in Matesih District, Ngargoyoso District, and Tawangmangu District.These three areas have potential natural tourism objects that can be appropriately developed.Social media currently has a very large influence on community activities, which were initially only used in interactions between these users.In the development process, it has been used in important activities such as knowledge learning activities and providing all information and business promotion activities.The rapid development of digital technology in the current era has made many people create new social media applications, which are currently popping up in cyberspace.
The thing that influences the process of increasing tourism is in the form of increasing the marketing promotion strategy for natural tourism objects using social media Instagram as well as improving accessibility to tourist attraction locations and improving facilities and infrastructure at these tourist objects so that in the future tourists will be interested in visiting natural tourist objects in Karanganyar Regency.So Stakeholder visible (especially the government) must be able to move in developing these natural attractions.The sample in this study is a sample location of tourist objects in Karanganyar Regency.The sample was analyzed using an algorithmBackpropagationis a number in an element that is required in the associated value.The current study finds resonance with previous research in several key ways, particularly in its use of qualitative methods and its focus on tourism promotion and behavior influenced by social media.For instance, the work of Rukmiyati and Suastini [29] aligns closely with our findings on the significant impact of social media on tourist behavior, specifically in shaping choices related to visiting tourist attractions.Their work focused on Bali but shared a standard methodology and thematic interest with our study, which concentrated on Karanganyar Regency.Similarly, the study by Azhari et al. [30] is also qualitative and takes a strategic look at tourism development using SWOT analysis, pointing out the need to focus on both strengths and weaknesses in tourism offerings.While the Azhari study used SWOT analysis and ours did not, both research endeavors underline the need for strategic thinking in promoting and developing tourism locales.Notably, the research by Atiko et al. [31] also has relevance to our findings, particularly in their study of the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia's Instagram account (@Indtravel).Their research highlights the increasing importance of social media platforms like Instagram in tourism promotion, a conclusion that our study further validates.Our research found that Instagram's role in disseminating information about tourist attractions in Karanganyar Regency was significant.Specifically, around 34% of the Instagram reach for the Disparpora of Karanganyar Regency was attributed to visitors from Surakarta City, while only about 3% came from Boyolali Regency.This underlines the vital role social media platforms are playing in shaping tourism choices and providing accessible information to prospective visitors.

Conclusions
According to the research findings, Instagram emerges as a standout global platform with extensive popularity, proving highly effective in disseminating information to tourists and elevating promotional strategies for tourist attractions within Karanganyar Regency.The region's diverse tourism potential can be divided into two main categories: internal and external factors.Leveraging Instagram not only broadens the scope of potential visitor engagement but also empowers the formulation of precisely targeted strategies aimed at showcasing Karanganyar's natural wonders.This approach ensures that both domestic and international audiences can readily access pertinent information, thereby significantly enhancing the recognition of these attractions.Consequently, it is imperative for tourism stakeholders to harness the positive impact of Instagram, recognizing it as a straightforward and potent promotional tool capable of driving increased visitor numbers to the region.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The area of Study.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Map of Distribution of Geoourism Objects in Karanganyar Regency

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Visitors of Instagram of the Department of Tourism Youth and Sports Karanganyar from the Hinterland Areas of Karanganyar

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.The Distribution Visitors of Instagram of the Department of Tourism Youth and Sports Karanganyar from the Hinterland Areas of Karanganyar.

Table 2 .
Tools used in research

Table 3 .
Data used in research