Abstract
Bandung is one of Indonesia's leading tourism cities, and The Great Asia Africa in Lembang is among its most distinctive thematic destinations. However, the destination experienced a decline in visitors of up to 30% during the 2024 holiday season, while its official TikTok account remained inconsistently managed despite its large potential audience. The research gap in this study is the limited empirical evidence on how far the role of the TikTok platform affects the popularity of this destination. This study aims to analyze the role of the TikTok platform in increasing the popularity of The Great Asia Africa Bandung. The study used a quantitative approach with a survey method involving 96 respondents selected through the Cochran formula, and data were collected using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS through validity, reliability, normality, t-test, F-test, and simple linear regression. The results showed that the role of the TikTok platform has a positive and significant effect on destination popularity (t = 2.123; F = 4.508; Sig. = 0.036), although its contribution is relatively small (R-Square = 4.6%). The novelty of this study lies in the empirical evidence that the effectiveness of TikTok as a destination promotion medium is strongly determined by the integration of digital and non-digital strategies.