FACTORS INFLUENCING DESTINATION BRAND EQUITY OF CILETUH-PELABUHANRATU UNESCO GLOBAL GEOPARK (CPUGGP)

The tourism industry is a key driver in the socio-economic growth of countries and regions in Indonesia. Indonesia has great potential; this is realized from the choice of six tourism areas that have received UNESCO Global Geopark (UGG) certification, one of which is CPUGGp. But unfortunately, CPUGGp cannot be considered to have optimal and uneven results, besides that competition for tourist destinations is increasing. Therefore, an important aspect that needs to be done is an effective brand formation strategy. This study analyzes factors that affect destination brand equity. Methods and data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to measure the four variables it has brand awareness, brand association, brand equity, and brand loyalty. Results showed that the indicators of each variable were poorly assessed. Regarding the effect, the four indicators have a significant effect on destination brand equity. This research recommends building brand recognition, brand recall, to become top of mind, increasing brand association to improve safety, convenience related to costs, increasing perceived quality through cleanliness and facilities, and increasing brand loyalty by adding value revenue through collaboration.

The tourism industry is a key driver in the socio-economic growth of countries and regions in Indonesia.One of the biggest foreign exchange contributors in Indonesia is from the tourism sector.Indonesia has the potential as a country with a prospective investment destination, it is realized from the election of 6 (six) tourism areas that received UNESCO Global Geopark (UGG) certification, one of which is Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Unesco Global Geopark (CPUGGp) located in Sukabumi Regency, West Java Province.Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark includes 74 villages, 8 sub-districts and 3 geoarea, namely: Ciletuh Geoarea, Simpenan Geoarea, and Cisolok Geoarea (ciletuhpalabuhanratuugg.id, n.d.).Objective to be achieved by Sukabumi District Tourism Office is to increase the quality and number of CPUGGp tourists.Table 1 show that before Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 CPUGGp tourism had already increased overall and experienced a significant decline in 2020.When looking at the conditions before the pandemic, the number of CPUGGp tourists cannot be said to be an optimal result compared to the potential UGG certification obtained.
Basically, the Geopark has better potential before, as we can see from the moment of National Geopark was inaugurated on December 22, 2015 with the UNESCO Global Geopark (UGG) inaugurated on December 22, 2017 the change in the number of visitor increases did not experience a significant increase and tended to decrease from 28.71% to 19.08% in 2018 which should have been expected to increase more along with the increase in national certification to global.This can be seen in Figure 1.Furthermore, according to data in Figure 2, it can be seen that for last 5 years since CPUGGp was inaugurated as a National Geopark, visits have been more concentrated on Ciletuh Geoarea which includes Ciletuh, Ciracap, Ujung Genteng, Surade, Cikaso, Jampang Tengah, and Jampang Kulon areas.While the attractions included in Geoarea Simpenan and Geoarea Cisolok tend to have far fewer visits compared to Geoarea Ciletuh.This shows that there has not been an even distribution of tourists throughout the CPUGGp area.Result of interview with manager, the phenomenon is indicated that there is a lack of knowledge and interest of tourists related to several objects and tourist attractions (ODTW) in CPUGGp.In addition, the Sukabumi District Tourism Office and CPUGGp Area Management Board realize that efforts are needed to improve tourism competitiveness to retain and  increase tourists to visit CPUGGp.Tourists are faced with various choices of tourist destinations that have similar attractions and various attractive tourist offers.The establishment of destination brands becomes a powerful marketing tool with increased competition, similarity of products and the availability of substitute products in the tourism market (Usakli & Baloglu, 2011).Therefore, an important aspect needed by a tourist destination to win this competition is to carry out an effective brand formation strategy.The establishment of destination brands and brand equity is a strategy to make a difference as a result and add value to the visiting experience offered to tourists.(Aaker, 1991) Consumerbased brand equity consists of brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty.The first step in building brand equity is to create brand awareness.Brand awareness affects consumer perceptions and attitudes, encourages brand selection and increases consumer loyalty to the brand (Aaker, 1991).Brand associations are everything in a consumer's memory that relates to a brand.Brand associations help process or track information about a brand, differentiate the brand from other brands, establish reasons for buying and engender positive attitudes and feelings toward the brand (Durianto, Sugiarto, & Sitinjak, 2001).Furthermore, perceived quality is the customer's perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service in relation to what the customer expects (Durianto, Sugiarto, & Sitinjak, 2001).Finally, brand loyalty is a measure of customer engagement with a brand.This measure is able to give an idea of whether or not a customer may switch to another product brand, especially if the brand is found to be changing, either regarding price or other attributes (Durianto, Sugiarto, & Sitinjak, 2001).
Based on the background that has been described, the purpose of this study is to analyze brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty of CPUGGp as a tourist destination, analyze the influence of brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty on the destination brand equity of CPUGGp as a tourist destination, and formulate strategies to increase the destination brand equity of CPUGGp as a tourist destination.Here are the hypotheses used in the study:

METHODS OF RESEARCH
The data used in this study are primary data taken through surveys.The instrument used in the survey was an online questionnaire through a Google Form link with a period of September-November 2022.The method used in this study was quantitative with population data retrieval.This study was a foreigner who visited ODTW in CPUGGp with the criteria of having visited one of ODTW in CPUGGp at least once in a period of <2 years and aged >15 years, and representing the experience of visiting one of three existing Geoareas.
Sampling technique used in this study was using non-probability sampling technique and 298 respondents were obtained.Methods and data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) processed using SMARTPLS.Furthermore, taking respondents with criteria that have never visited as many as 100 respondents who were processed as descriptive data to enrich information.
This brand equity destination questionnaire was adapted from (Durianto, Sugiarto, & Sitinjak, 2001).SEM model in this study was built with two variables, the latent variable and indicator.The latent variable consists of brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty and the endogenous variable, namely destination brand equity.Exogenous and endogenous latent variables are presented in Table 1.

RESULTS OF STUDY
Results of the demographic analysis in this study show that most dominant CPUGGp tourists are women, aged 10-25 years, have a high school/equivalent graduate education background, have private employee employment status of more than three million five hundred thousand rupiah per month, and are domiciled in West Java Province, especially in Sukabumi City/ Regency.Furthermore, related to the experience of visits, this study shows that the majority of tourists know CPUGGp first through friends/acquaintances, have made a visit to CPUGGp once, make a visit at the beginning of the year (January-June) 2022, visit time for one day without staying, come together with family/relatives, and use private vehicles, especially motorcycles.
Results of the brand awareness variable show that almost all respondents who have come to CPUGGp have heard about CPUGGp but a small percentage of respondents who know the area and number of existing ODTW.Furthermore, the majority of respondents already know that CPUGGp has natural tourism destinations, but a minority of respondents who know that CPUGGp has cultural and social tourism destinations.Then, only a small percentage of respondents remembered CPUGGp when they heard the word 'natural tourist destination' and only a small percentage were able to recognize CPUGGp compared to other tourist destinations.Another case with the results of analysis to respondents who have never visited, it was found that majority of respondents said they had never heard of CPUGGp and did not know about the tourist destinations CPUGGp not only of natural tourism but also there are cultural and social tourism that can be visited, and from this does not make CPUGGp as the top of mind for the category of tourist destinations to those who have never visited.
Results of the brand association variable show that respondents who have visited assess that facilities, access, are considered to have benefits sought from a tourist destination, can be visited at an affordable cost, representing the personality of respondents as someone who likes natural, cultural and social tourism.Furthermore, perceived quality is the customer's perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service in relation to what the customer expects..It was found that ten of eleven variable indicators owned by brand association had good value except for celebrity person who was judged that CPUGGp had not succeeded in introducing his brand through figures.The ambassadors had been carried out through Mojang Jajaka of Sukabumi Regency.Results of analysis to respondents who have never visited said that most of them consider that CPUGGp has a remote location and requires more time and planning to visit even though in terms of entry costs tourist destinations are considered affordable.Majority of respondents who have never visited also stated that they would be more interested if there is a trusted celebrity person/ambassador who recommends CPUGGp as a tourist destination that has a uniqueness and high attractiveness.
The results of perceived quality variable show that most respondents assess that CPUGGp has services, security levels, and has provided vehicle parking facilities with good quality.In addition, most respondents said that CPUGGp has characteristics are different from other attractions and actual condition of CPUGGp was seen as in accordance with what was promoted.Furthermore, the majority of respondents agreed that CPUGGp already has signs along the way or/and in important places that are useful for tourists.However, only a small percentage of respondents assessed that CPUGGp has cleanliness conditions, providing places of worship and toilets with good quality.Furthermore, for special variables of UGG Self-Evaluation Checklist, respondents considered that Instagram, Facebook and road signs as information media have been useful for tourists, but another case with Twitter, Youtube, leaflets that are considered not yet useful for tourists as information media.Results of analysis to respondents who have never visited showed that those who have heard of CPUGGp mostly get information from friends or acquaintances and in addition from social media such as instagram, facebook, tiktok, and others so that their perceptions are formed to resemble the experience of information sources, namely assuming that CPUGGp has poor cleanliness, especially beach ODTW and quality of supporting facilities such as toilets and places of worship are inadequate.
Results of brand loyalty variable show that most of respondents in the study will return to visit CPUGGp and choose CPUGGp as a tourist destination in the future even if it requires more costs than before.Furthermore, most respondents were satisfied with their visit to attractions in CPUGGp and liked CPUGGp as a tourist destination, then would spread good judgments about CPUGGp to others.Results of destination brand equity variable show that most respondents assess that CPUGGp is an attractive tourist destination to visit, then they will visit CPUGGp again when they want to travel later on and CPUGGp is the best choice compared to the choice of other tourist destinations even if they offer the same concept/quality and will still recommend it.Then, most of the respondents stated that visiting CPUGGp is the best choice compared to other choice tourist destinations even if they need a cheaper cost and will still recommend it.In addition, most respondents believe that in the future CPUGGp has new attractions or tourist products will be of good quality.
Measurement model is used to test the validity of construct and reliability of instrument.Four of five variables were found to have an AVE value of more than 0.5, which means they are valid, but for PQ variables, they have an AVE value that is less than 0.5, so they are not valid.In addition, there are several indicators for each variable whose value is smaller than 0.70, meaning that indicator is not valid as a measuring instrument so it is necessary to reestimate by issuing an invalid indicator.After re-estimation, a full path diagram of final model as shown in Figure 5, it can be seen that AVE value of all variables is more than 0.5 and also can be seen the outer loading value of each indicator greater than 0.70.This means that indicators in the model have been valid as measuring tool for their respective variables so they can be used for modeling.Furthermore, a discriminant validity test was carried out based on AVE root value and correlation and seen from the cross loading.A cross loading value is obtained for each indicator that measures one variable value is greater than other variables.So that the indicators in the model are discriminantly valid.Then testing Goodness of Fit Model, R2 value of DBE is 0.769, meaning that diversity of DBE variables is explained by BAS, BAW, BL, and PQ variables by 76.9%, while the remaining 23.1% is explained by other variables not included in the model.Q-square value is close to 1, so it can be concluded that the model is good.Furthermore, based on Table 2, the results obtained that all Cronbach's Alpha and composite reliability values of all dimensions are more than 0.6 and 0.7 so that it can be stated that all dimensions are reliable.Based on Figure 4, it can be seen that value of indicators contribution to each of five latent variables, including: (1) Brand awareness variable has three final indicators that are measured, namely brand recognition, brand recall, and top of mind.It was found that brand recognition indicator with indicator variable 'understanding CPUGGp ranging from area, geoarea distribution, number of attractions and others' was the indicator with highest contribution to the brand awareness variable.(2) Brand association variable has ten final indicators that are measured; they are product attributes, intangibles attributes, customer's benefits, relative price, application, customer user, life style personality, product class, competitors, and country/geographic area.It was found that application indicator with indicator variable 'entertainment function, education, and contribute to environmental conservation' was the indicator with highest contribution to the brand association variable.(3) Perceived quality variable has four final indicators that are measured, namely performance, reliability, results, and facilities based on self-evaluation of the UGG checklist.It was found that indicator facilities based on the UGG self-evaluation checklist with the indicator modifiers' signs along the road or/and in important places that are useful for tourists' was indicator with the highest contribution to perceived quality variable.(4) Brand loyalty variable has one final indicator that is measured, namely the brand liking indicator.It was found that brand liking indicator with a 'preferred as a tourist destination' indicator was an indicator that had a full contribution to the brand loyalty variable.(5) Destination brand equity variable has five indicators that are measured; they are consumer interest, visitation decisions, consumer loyalty, price value and competitive value.It was found that visit decision indicator with indicator change 'tourists will visit CPUGGp again when they want to travel in the future and will recommend it to others' was the indicator with the highest contribution to destination brand equity variable.
Based on Table 3, it can be seen that BAW, BAS, PQ, and BL have a p-value of <0.05 so that decision to reject H0 is obtained, meaning that based on testing it can be concluded that there is a significant effect of brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty on the destination brand equity of CPUGGp.This hypothesis is in line with previous research conducted by (Tran, Nguyen, Tran, Tran, & Huynh, 2018), Tasseven & Ardahanlioglu, 2017)(Saeed & Shafque, 2019), and (Farina, 2014) which has the results of each of four variables has a significant influence on destination brand equity.Then obtained the value of direct influence which can be seen in Table 4, that means each increase in the independent variable will significantly increase DBE by percentage.Based on the results of data analysis using SEM and comparing loading factors to see respondents' perspectives on the most influential variables and indicators, it gave birth to strategies to increase destination brand equity.BL has the greatest loading factor value, making brand loyalty the manager's first focus.After that, there are DBEs and BUSES with greatest loading factor after BL which makes destination brand equity and brand association as the second and third focus.Then, PQ and BAW that have lowest loading factor make perceived quality and brand awareness the last focus.Then based on the analysis of the values of each indicator, it was found that there were several indicators that needed improvement efforts because they still had low scores.Therefore, the improvement strategy of each indicator can be described in accordance with the implementation priorities.Priority 1, improving performance through the aspect of cleanliness and then collaborating between CPUGGp Management Agency as a management party with the community, supporting businesses, travel agencies, and others as stakeholders, and ordering illegal levies as a form of handling tourist complaints.Priority 2, increase reliability through construction of worship place and toilets with good quality throughout the attraction.Priority 3, strengthen brand recognition, brand recall, to achieve top of mind through campaigns through word of mouth and online media and perform social media optimization.Priority 4, Improve visibility, infrastructure, and facilities related to information facilities.Priority 5, selection of ambassadors/celeb people in accordance with the characteristics of target tourists as an effort to strengthen CPUGGp brand association.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Results of research on demographic characteristics found more female tourists than male tourists, this is supported by the results of a survey conducted by the Indonesia Adventure Travel Trade Association (IATTA) which states that if gendered more women who like travel both solo and group adventures.Furthermore, majority of tourists fall into the category of Generation Z who according to (Ismayanti, 2010) generation like challenges in tourism activities, conduct tourism activities to conduct social interactions in the environment, conduct group and reported tourism activities, see prestige when doing activities, want to get to know the tourist area in depth, and there is a high level of service demand, in addition, according to the (Pramesty & Simanjuntak, 2020) statement, Generation Z spends more time to engage in social media platforms so that it is easier to be exposed to promotions through these platforms.
Still regarding to demographic characteristics, it was found that majority of tourists have employment status as private employees.This is related to the motivation to travel according (Sari, Kusumah, & Marhanah, 2018)to that there is motivation behind a person to travel, including escape, which is to want to break away from the environment that is felt to be saturated, or saturation from daily work, then relaxation, which is the desire to get refreshment that is also related to the motivation to escape above, then strengthening family bonds or wanting to strengthen kinship and family relationships by traveling together, because togetherness is very difficult to obtain due to daily work activities.In addition, it was found that majority of respondents had the highest income from choices in questionnaire, this is in accordance with research (Kurniawan, 2019) which states that higher a person's income will make someone buy facilities at a tourist attraction, besides that an increase in a person's income will reduce the number of tourist visits.
Results of research in hypothesis testing show that brand awareness variables have a positive and significant effect on destination brand equity.This indicates when high brand awareness will make destination brand equity high as well and this is in line with previous research conducted by ( , then understand that CPUGGp is a tourist destination located in Sukabumi Regency, has a high attraction with a wide selection of attractions covering natural, cultural, and social tourism with a large area (brand recognition), then from that understanding tourists will remember CPUGGp when they hear about the word 'tourist destination' (brand recall) to recognize and understand CPUGGp compared to other tourist destinations (top of mind).Based on research results, indicator that has highest influence is brand recognition and lowest is top of mind, it can be seen that the reason for not maximizing the number of visits is because CPUGGp has not become a superior brand in the tourist destination category and effort that can be made is to make improvements.
Furthermore, results of research in testing the hypothesis show that brand association has a positive and significant effect on brand equity destination.This indicates that when the brand association has a good value, it will increase the value of destination brand equity.This is in line with previous research conducted by (Wicaksana, Suryawardani, & Dewi, 2020), (Anuwichanont & Mechinda, 2009) (Chen & Myagmarsuren, 2010), (Gorska, 2020),, and (Kashif, Samsi, & Sarifuddin, 2015) that brand associations affect brand equity destinations.All associations will influence CPUGGp, including CPUGGp must successfully deliver entertainment, education, and contribute to the preservation of the environment, have benefits that can be provided by tourists as a tourist attraction, be used as a tourist destination that will be visited if you want to vacation, have good value as a tourist destination, are considered to have affordable costs, by visiting it is considered a pride, offer a different concept to other tourist destinations, and represent characteristics that describe the area.In this study, brand association indicators that have the highest influence are applications and are considered good, this is because CPUGGp has provided entertainment felt from the visiting experience and the business that can be done is to maintain it.
In addition, the results of this study show that perceived quality has a positive and significant effect on brand equity destination.This indicates that when the brand association has a good value, it will increase the value of destination brand equity.This is in line with previous research conducted by ( Then, results of this study show that brand loyalty has a positive and significant effect on brand equity destination.This indicates when strong perceived quality will strengthen the value of destination brand equity.This is in line with previous research conducted by (Gorska, 2020),(Chia, Huang, & Nguyen, 2020),(Diarta I. K., 2015),, and (Shafaei & Mohamed, 2015) that brand associations affect brand equity destinations.In this study, the assessment indicator of CPUGGp as a tourist destination that is preferred by tourists greatly affects the brand loyalty variable, when tourists already have loyalty to CPUGGp and have feelings of dislike for CPUGGp as a brand of a tourist destination, it will increase the opportunity to infer re-visit behavior or make recommendations to other prospective tourists, in other words, tourists who have visited can be used as promotional media as word of mouth agents.The results showed that indicators that represent brand loyalty already have good value and effort that can be done is to maintain it.
Furthermore, regarding the strategy to increase Destination Brand Equity, it can be concluded that main focus of CPUGGp Management Agency to increase destination brand equity is related to the aspect of physical development in the form of facilities by maximizing quality and increasing quantity and then continuing with communication optimization for marketing purposes as an effort to increase the number of visitors both re-visits carried out by tourists who have visited or visits from tourists who have never visited.In addition, there is also an increase in good perception and brand strengthening for tourists who have visited or have not visited.

CONCLUSION
Results showed that brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty had several indicators that had low levels.Then, brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty have a significant influence on brand equity destination.Furthermore, the formulation of destination brand equity strategy is carried out by defining appropriate steps adjusted to the level of strength of each variable and implementing improvements and development based on the priority scale to indicators with low values.
This research has limitations because it only examines destination brand equity with a customer-based perspective.In addition, data collection method was carried out through online media with questionnaire instruments through gform.Clusterization is based solely on the division of Geoarea.Therefore, further research is expected to consider destination brand equity with other perspectives besides customer-based.In addition, the data collection method was carried out in this study through questionnaires distributed online, next study can conduct additional interviews to get in-depth results.Clustering research is only based on the division of Geoarea; further research can examine clustering based on sub-districts or existing tourist attractions for more detailed research.Then, target respondents can also be expanded to foreign tourists.

Figure 1 -
Figure 1 -Changes in the number of tourists CPUGGp (Source: Report of CPUGGp Regional Management Agency)

Figure 2 -
Figure 2 -Number of tourist visits in the CPUGGp area (Source: Report of CPUGGp Regional Management Agency)

Figure 3 -
Figure 3 -Research Framework: • H1: Brand Awareness positively affects Destination Brand Equity; • H2: Brand Association has a positive effect on Destination Brand Equity; • H3: Perceived Quality positively affects Destination Brand Equity; • H4: Brand Loyalty positively affects Destination Brand Equity.

Figure 4 -
Figure 4 -Post Re-estimation Model Full Path Diarta, Pitana, Putra, & Wiranatha, 2015) (Tran, Nguyen, Phuong Thi Kim Tran, & Huynh, 2019),(Mechinda, Serirat, Popaijit, Lertwannawit, & Anuwichanont, 2010),, and (Majasoka, Sumarwan, & Muflikhati, 2020) that brand awareness affects destination brand equity both directly and indirectly.Tourists will visit CPUGGp when they know in advance about what is CPUGGP (brand unware) Tran, Nguyen, Phuong Thi Kim Tran, & Huynh, 2019) (Shafaei & Mohamed, 2015),(Arwanda, Hartoyo, & Hartoyo, 2014),, (Sujin, Hyungsoo, Moorhouse, Minjeong, & Byung, 2020) and (Ramadhani, Daryanto, & Rifin, 2014) that brand perceived quality affects destination brand equity both directly and indirectly.All aspects that affect include signs along the road or/and in important places can be useful for tourists, facilities and infrastructure with good quality, good hygiene conditions, and good overall value in accordance with the efforts of tourists spending.In this study, the perceived quality indicators that have the highest influence are information facilities but have low values, this is because the Management Agency has not optimized all the official social media accounts they have and collaborates to communicate information and persuasion to visit CPUGGp in accordance with research conducted by (Hakim, Simajuntak, & Hasanah, 2021) and (Susila, Sumarwan, & Kirbrandoko, 2014) that managers can convince prospective tourists that CPUGGp is the best choice destination and can meet expectations through promotional presentations submitted from trusted sources.Furthermore, improvements can be made by optimizing information facilities such as information centers, as well as the lack of road signs and tourist information throughout CPUGGp region.

Table 1 -
CPUGGp Region Tourist Visit Data Source: processed from the annual data of the CPUGGp Area Management Agency.

Table 2 -
Exogenous latent variable and endogenous latent variable

Table 3 -
Cronbach's Alpha and Composite Reliability