Skills development

Villagers jump-start their businesses with new marketing strategies

An ILO-UK programme gives post-training support to boost the business potential of entrepreneurs from Indonesia’s coastal tourism villages.

Feature | 15 June 2022
Visitors interact with villagers at the business matching and exhibition event. ©Klabat University
Conducting customer surveys and ensuring product brochures are informative and attractive are some of the basic practices used by businesses to boost their potential.

But for entrepreneurs from four coastal villages of Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province - Marinsow, Pulisan, Tiwoho and Budo - such strategies were unknown until late April, when they joined a business matching and exhibition event organized as part of the ILO-UK Skills for Prosperity Programme in Indonesia (SfP-Indonesia).

“I’ve run a very small business selling clothes and other things on the beach during holidays, and I had no idea about how to conduct a market survey,” said one of the villagers.

“But [after joining the event] I found out that we can simply ask customers for their contact numbers, and their opinions and suggestions for our products. Now I want to conduct a survey to find out exactly what customers want,” the villager said.

This event demonstrates that skills training is important to stimulate various initiatives to improve livelihoods in local communities."

Mary Kent, SfP-Indonesia Chief Technical Advisor
More than 200 people joined the event held on 28 April 2022 by Klabat University. They include the villagers, students, investors, financiers and representatives of the Association of Tour and Travel (ASITA), the Association of Tourism Villages (ASIDEWI), the Association of Tour Operators (ASTINDO) and the Indonesia Tour Guide Association (HPI).

The event was designed to help local communities realize their business potential, understand the supply chain and explore diverse perspectives when it comes to the presentation of their products and businesses.

Villagers said this event helped them benchmark their products against others and capture market opportunities in their localities, which are designated by the government as tourism areas. It also helped them understand the value chain of local businesses, from raw materials to distribution channels, enabling them to understand the entire production and marketing chain involving their businesses.

The four villages are the targeted pilot areas for SfP-Indonesia’s collaboration with two local education institutions, Klabat University and Manado State Polytechnic. The event followed a series of previous trainings provided by students and lecturers at the two institutions to the villages on financial education, village enterprise management, and green businesses and product development.

The chairman of the Budo village enterprise, Hanny Loren Singa, said: “The event helped us see and learn from the other villages’ products. For example, we learned how Tiwoho village recycled plastic waste by turning it into valued products.”

At the event, the villagers set up exhibition booths to present a variety of products such as handicrafts, culinary products, homestays, tour packages, processed food and beverage products and clothes. In addition, the exhibition featured a discussion panel with Clair Greenaway, a tourism expert from the UK’s University of Gloucestershire; Amrosius Montolalu, a successful entrepreneur; Deisy Josep from the investment and licensing office of the North Minahasa District; and Vocky Poli from Bank Mandiri.

The interaction enabled the villagers to learn from the private sector, academic and government. Some of them said they now realized that they could make their product brochures more informative and attractive by, for instance, adding their contact numbers and pictures.

“They have many ideas to help us improve our tourism businesses”, said one villager.

“After the event, we got a 3-day training on tourism package development from ASITA, which helped us better market our homestay and other businesses. We hope that ASITA can help bring more tourists to our villages”, added the villager.

Diana Pangouw, a representative from the tourism office of North Minahasa District, said the event incorporated an innovative development model.

“It was an approach that engaged academics, businesses, communities, government and the media to create an ecosystem based on creativity and knowledge in the tourism sector in North Minahasa District,” she said.

Mary Kent, SfP-Indonesia Chief Technical Advisor said: “This event demonstrates that skills training is important to stimulate various initiatives to improve livelihoods in local communities, particularly in coastal areas, and tourism is a strategic sector that can support various businesses, in particular micro and small enterprises”.