Dr. Destha Titi Raharjana, a researcher at the UGM Center for Tourism Studies, stated that one of the determining factors for the progress of tourism villages lies in the capacity of human resources in their management institutions because the development of tourism villages is essentially carried out through community-based tourism (CBT).
“Meaning, placing the village community as the subject is the main and important thing to do,” Dr. Raharjana said when he became a speaker at the Institutional Management Training during the Tourism Awareness Campaign 5.0 held in Kembang Kuning tourism village, East Lombok, on Tuesday (Apr. 22).
Dr. Raharjana emphasized the strategic role of the Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis). Pokdarwis is required to innovate, make breakthroughs, and foster collaboration among elements.
According to him, this is a necessity, considering the field findings, especially from three participating villages: Mertak village and Bonjeruk village in Central Lombok Regency and Buwun Sejati village in West Lombok Regency, which have problems with the synergy among village institutions.
The training material on institutional management was divided into two parts over two days, 21-22 April 2024, including theoretical material delivery. The resource persons provided materials on the introduction, formation, and strengthening of tourism village institutions, tourism organization/structure, procedures, and tourism village management/governance, followed by group work per village related to managing tourism villages.
“In the practical activity, each village reflects on the management model that is currently in place,” he said.
Dr. Raharjana mentioned that the participants were very enthusiastic in giving their opinions. From the discussions, each tourism village was able to present the existing situation of institutions in the village that are directly or indirectly related to tourism, and they agreed on the follow-up actions.
As a result, this training ultimately led to an agreement to support institutions through human resource reactivation and institutional management, which will professionally manage tourism villages and formulate rules and regulations according to each village’s needs.
He also explained that the KSW 5.0 training is a follow-up to the implementation of a focus group discussion on potential mapping and identification of training needs conducted in March 2024. One of the mandatory training sessions to be provided is institutional management training.
In addition, other training materials related to business planning (business plan), guiding-storytelling, tour package preparation, and digitalization were also provided.
Forty-five participants from three villages in Lombok, a priority tourism destination, attended the training.
They were assigned as local champions or tourism advocates in each village, representing elements of Pokdarwis, MSMEs, customary institutions, Village-Owned Enterprises (Bumdes), and village officials.
“This activity was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism through the Deputy of Human Resources and Institutions, Directorate of Tourism HR Development,” he added.
Author: Agung Nugroho