The Batavia-based Travellers Official Information Bureau of the Netherlands Indies (Vereeniging voor Toeristenverkeer in Nederlands-Indiё) not only highlighted nature and landscape in its publications, it also used the various ethnic groups for economic gain. Its promotion of North Sumatra largely focused on the ‘typical’ and ‘interesting’ population of the Batak lands. The Batak, however, did not always bend to the wishes of the tourist bureaus. In the Deli Courant for 13 August 1934, an anonymous journalist complains that the attractiveness of the region is not exactly promoted by the Batak’s behaviour: ‘Ladies ambling on their own are harassed with unwelcome curiosity and impertinent questions, while there have also been a few cases of a more far-reaching nature, such as when they went swimming in Laut Kawar Lake, which far exceed the bounds of what is appropriate and tolerable.’
The Batak, in: Tourism in Netherlands India. A monthly bulletin of information relative to travel in the Dutch East Indies 5 (1930). [KITLV TS 5960]