Culture of Drinking Coffee as a Brand Culture Communication on Belitung Island

Since the Dutch colonial era, coffee drinking in coffee shops is inseparable in the daily lives of the people of Belitung Island. Most of their time every day has spent in the coffee shops that are easily found there. Uniquely, their presence in the shop, sometimes only accompanied by one cup of coffee. Coffee shops in Belitung not only offer the sensation of drinking coffee and the raw materials that are imported from other regions but also the freedom of expression in public space that promotes local cultural values. For many years, coffee shops have become cultural communication public space between local communities and are widely used as information exchange rooms. But along with globalization and digitalization, there was a cultural shift in the presence of this coffee shop. Now its function is no longer just a public space but has become part of the modern marketing concept to advance the regional tourism industry. With a descriptive qualitative research approach, the author tries to describe the process of socio-cultural change, which is associated with the Symbolic Interaction Theory which is part of the Interpersonal Theory. Through the provision of meaning that is universally believed, an object can create brand loyalty and brand culture from a product. The results showed that some coffee business people felt that films with a background in life in Belitung, Laskar Pelangi, had become a turning point in cultural changes that changed the cultural meaning of drinking coffee in their native regions. If in the past, the culture of drinking coffee was an activity to fill leisure time. Now the culture of drinking coffee is one of the mainstay activities to improve the tourism industry on Belitung Island. Keywords—Belitung Island; coffee drinking culture; local tourism industry; Laskar Pelangi