Batik-Based Tourism:

A Potential Business Opportunity

Currently not just adult wears batik, but also teenagers, even children too. It is a great opportunity for everyone, especially young people to plunge into batik business, started from a small scale based on the capital owned. The business segment can be started from making to selling batik cloth, doing batik-based garment and its motifs, producing handicrafts or souvenirs.

Batik-based tourism business can be an alternative tourism to develop with a specific interest. Many interesting activities can be done, such as visiting batik museum in Yogyakarta, doing batik, visiting batik center, and meeting with batik artists in Yogyakarta. Local and foreign tourists who are curious about batik can learn batik, recognize the motives and meanings of batik cloth. Process of making batik will be certainly a new experience for those who are interested in world of batik.

Some batik centers such as traditional batik in Giriloyo-Imogiri and Pajangan-Bantul, batik ‘jumput’ in Tahunan village-Yogyakarta, or batik mask craft at Bobung-Gunungkidul might be the destinations of the visits. There are also different and unique batik business concepts such as innovation of local ethnic group motifs in Indonesia manifested with batik techniques, and it requires art knowledge from various regions in Indonesia having unique cultural characteristics, started from motif, meanings, its usage to making process.

Public figures who are proud of wearing batik, like Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994-1999, was acquainted with batik when visiting Indonesia for the first time in 1990 and he liked it. Evidently, he always wore batik in many meeting occasions with other country leaders. From his passion of wearing batik, the South African people still named batik as 'Mandela's Shirt' although Mandela died on December 5, 2013. Next, Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world who is also Microsoft boss, wore batik when he gave general lectures at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, Jakarta, May 9, 2008. He wore ‘Pisang Bali Manggar’ motif when he had a meeting with members of Mangkunegaran royal family (http://rona.metrotvnews.com/gaya/lKY7e5Jb-10-seleb-tokoh-dunia-pakai-batik-indonesia).

Batik is one of Indonesia's cultural heritages that must be preserved. Moreover, the government has legalized batik day in Indonesia as a way to maintain and develop Indonesian batik. There are some potencies that can be developed and it may open idea to create business opportunities in batik world creatively. (ELZ).