6th Asian Academic Society International Conferenc (AASIC) A Transformative Community: Asia in Dynamism, Innovation, and Globalization ©Copyright 2018 proceeding of the 6 th AASIC 509 TRAVEL, WRITING, AND POPULAR CULTURE IN 21 st CENTURY INDONESIA Arif Furqan Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai afurqannn@gmail.com Abstract This paper aims to elaborate the phenomena of travel as popular culture in publications; books, movies, television, and social media. As travel becomes an important means to contemporary society, the efforts of documenting and representing travel experience becomes vital and massive. Numerous publications of travel-themed books, movies, television shows, and social media posts indicate that travel has become certain popular theme and style for Indonesians. By focusing the discussion on the concept of travel writing and its usage on popular media, this research indicates that travel books, movies, and television shows produced by the author/director are used to awaken Indonesians awareness toward travel. The 21 st century travel writing is mostly influenced by modern sensibility which tends romanticize the travelogues. The widespread of romantic representation in popular media creates a popular myth about the journey and travel destination. Moreover, the social media involvement facilitates the production of myth by engaging the user into the voluntary (re)production of travel discourse and its myth. Keywords: travel, popular culture, Indonesia, myth, 21st century 1. INTRODUCTION The Visit Indonesia program in 1991 ************* initiated the government mission on developing travel and tourism. Yet, the flourishing results appears in the 21st century along with the advance publication technology which enable the faster, wider, and deeper reach. The popular culture endorsement on travel industry plays very significant role in indoctrinating and creating Indonesians awareness toward travel. There are hundreds of travel-themed publications in various form; book, movie, television, and internet content ††††††††††††† . In the turn of the millennia, the discourses about travel are flooding the popular—mass— media. Numerous television show broadcast, books, movie, advertising, and the internet and social media post have endorsed and positions travel as an important part in popular culture. Moreover, the spread of travel discourses is facilitated by the inclusive of production and consumption in social media. Miller (2017) stated that there are 80 million photos posted in Instagram each day and ************* Visit Indonesia Year program has been launched in 1991 to promote Indonesian tourism with different theme every year. In 2008, the name changed into Wonderful Indonesia and has spread the word not only to local audience but also to people throughout the world. ††††††††††††† In bookshops around Indonesia, travel publication even has its own section. There are hundreds of books ranged from fiction, documentary, autobiography, biography, and travel tips.