BRANDING CITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM TO SUPPORT TOURISM COMPETITIVENESS ( CASE STUDY: JAKARTA AND KUALA LUMPUR )

Tourism has important roles in supporting the nation development. In the situation where competition in the tourism sector is getting higher, the interests in practicing city branding by the government is increasing. This study applies the combination of qualitative and descriptive approaches in analyzing the role of branding and how it is applied as a case study in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. The positioning of Indonesia and Malaysia tourism industry within the ASEAN scope is also analyzed. Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur are chosen as the objects for the case study since both cities have practiced city marketing as well as both have their own city brand. The results using secondary data show that the processes of establishing city branding in both cities have been done through appropriate processes involving many stakeholders. However, the “Enjoy Jakarta” brand is still considered unable in fulÞ lling the promises that it offered. On the other hand, apart from the success of tourism Malaysia in being the most visited country as compared to other ASEAN countries, the “Visit KL” should be consistently evaluated in order to maintain the brand equity that it should have and be able to position the city in the same level as other big cities in the world. Key word: city branding, city marketing, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur