The History of Conference Travel and Tourism in Indonesia

By: Elisa Thenni

In the earliest times, people have travelled on foot to hunt, explore or make pilgrimages. The invention of wheel and the sail provided new modes of transportation. Each improvement in technology increased individuals opportunities to travel. The civilization and social level become more complex and reaches the need to travel on business purposes. The history of conference travel and tourism in Indonesia internationally begin at the time after Indonesia had been colonized. There are many conferences held in the process of gaining Indonesias independence. Malino Conference, Linggarjati Conference, Renville Conference, Roem Royen Conference until it reach the important and famous conferences which is Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference and Asian-African Conference. The Round Table Conference was held in the Hague from August 23 - November 2, 1949 between representatives of the Netherlands, the Republic of Indonesia and the BFO (Federal Consultative Assembly) representing various states the Dutch had created in the Indonesian archipelago. Prior to this conference, three other high level meetings between Netherlands and Indonesia took place; the Linggadjati Agreement (1947), the Renville Agreement (1948), and the Roem-van Roijen Agreement (1949). The conference ended with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia. Asian-African Conference is the first large-scale AsianAfrican was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on April 1824, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. The twenty nine countries, which participated at the Bandung Conference, represented nearly one fourth of the Earth's land surface and a total population of 1.5 billion people. The conference's stated aims were to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation. The advancement of conference travel and tourism in Indonesia are growing years by years in line with the advancement of information technology, the internet. As it is growing rapidly, the future of conference will rely on the new information and technologies, such as video and computer-conferencing as well as virtual reality. These, it is suggested, will reduce the overall demand for general business travel.