Andi Fyqri Hanyfa Lemppa; Mohammad Insan Romadhan
As one of the oldest heritage tourism sites in Indonesia, KBS (Kebun Binatang Surabaya) faces challenges in sustaining its relevance and competing with other modern tourism offerings. The sustainability of KBS is largely influenced by the image communication strategies used to market the zoo and attract family tourists. This study aims to assess the communication strategies along with social media promotion, as well as the tourists’ experience regarding their visit. The data collection technique was field observation, digital documentation analysis, and interviews using a semi-structured format which was analyzed descriptively qualitatively. Research findings indicate that KBS has social media and stakeholder collaboration as main promo media and, education as the fundamental pull factor. Moreover, despite its strengths, KBS suffers from gaps in destination branding and lack of innovation in digital on-site experience. A competitive repositioning by building a unique identifiable brand through, integrated and comprehensive communication strategies was proposed for the use of KBS as a family-friendly competitive educational tourism site.