Learning tourism ecosystem in Penang through the 2019 World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Young Fellows that was held 11-15 November 2019, a student of Management Study Program President University Jason Tanardi has succeeded to obtain an unforgettable experience. WIEF is a program where participants from various countries such as Comoro Island, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, France, England, and Bangladesh gather to gain in-depth knowledge about the world of tourism so that it can be useful for the economic development of tourism in their respective countries of origin. The participants were selected by the committee based on documents that had previously been collected by the applicants of the program.
“Now, not only the industry that is experiencing the fourth revolution but the tourism sector is also entering the era of tourism 4.0. For that reason, I feel that I need to improve my knowledge about tourism in today’s era,” Jason said as he explained his motivation for joining the 2019 WIEF Young Fellows.
For 4 days, Jason learned many things, starting from workshops on smart tourism, tourism satisfaction, social media strategies to real projects where Jason and the other participants had to make a business plan about Penang tourism. The business plan which includes background, analysis and marketing strategies of the attractions in Penang was then presented. One of the things he proposed was the application of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems to provide a brand new experience for tourists in a tourist attraction.
Interestingly, during this program, the participants who were divided into groups of 3 people competed to make a Penang tourism promotion video. On this occasion, Jason and his team raised the theme of art and culture in Penang and won the competition. “I am very happy and proud to be able to take part in this program, especially when I am trusted to be a part of validation where I conducted market research and developed marketing strategies. I really get a real experience about how tourism should be run,” said Jason.
Aside from Jason, an alumna of Business Administrasi batch 2014, Fitriah Ramdhani also participated in WIEF Young Fellows 2019. Both participated in the program with the flight ticket and application fee that is sponsored by President University Alumni Association. The awarding of this sponsorship was carried out at the 2019 Alumni Reception event which took place on 26 October 2019.