THE STUDY OF NEEDS ANALYSIS OF TOURISM TOPICS AND ENGLISH LINGUISTIC FEATURES THROUGH LOCAL-BASED NEEDS AT THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE TOURISM DESTINATION IN NORTH SUMATRA PROVINCE INDONESIA

This study mainly attempted to find out the relevant tourism topics and English linguistic features through a local-based need at the Golden Triangle Tourism Destination in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The Golden Triangle Tourism Destination covers the three main tourism sites, namely Lake Toba and Samosir Island with its surroundings, Brastagi (Karo Highland), and Bukit Lawang (Orangutan conservation area and ecotourism). Theoretically and empirically, the local-based need promotes and empowers the tourism resources locally to meet the needs of tourism industry. In addition, it is also relevant to the statement “think globally and act locally”. The present study was carried out through the explorative and discovery research method. The respondents of this research were the tourism employees involved in tourism industry such as the state and private sectors, the formal and nonformal sectors, and the low and high level managements. The data were collected by a questionnaire, documentary sheet, and in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed by the descriptive analysis. The results of the study showed that 1) there were a number of various tourism topics with distinctive local conditions that were required by tourists and 2) the English linguistic features used, both spoken and written, by the tourism employees were unique and typical ones.