Gamplong Tourism Village, located in Moyudan District, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region, is widely recognized as a prime destination offering a variety of unique cultural and experiential attractions.
While many are familiar with Studio Alam Gamplong, few realize the huge potential and uniqueness of Gamplong Tourism, particularly through its handicrafts that produce unique products like traditional woven fabrics with distinctive patterns reflecting the beauty of local culture, as well as creatively crafted home accessories and decorations made from natural materials like rattan, bamboo, sand, and natural fibers.
Despite being a fairly popular tourist destination, Gamplong Tourism Village still faces some challenges in its management, one of which is the lack of a clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
The absence of an SOP has been an obstacle in managing coordination between the village managers, artisans, and tourists.
As a form of support to help Gamplong become a more professional tourism village, students from the Tourism Program of UGM’s Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB UGM) initiated a discussion forum to draft the SOP involving various parties, including village managers, division heads, and division members.
“This forum discussed several key points, such as standardizing the flow of tourist visits, including guidelines from the reservation process to tourist drop-off, and scheduling activities such as craft-making lessons and enjoying local cuisine,” said Franzeska Aurellia Oenang, a Tourism Program student, in a statement sent to reporters on Monday (Dec. 30).
In discussions with the division heads of Gamplong Tourism Village, Oenang mentioned several major issues, such as the lack of clear work guidelines for each division and the ambiguity of task distribution, especially in welcoming tourists when the number of visitors increases, leading to frequent confusion in implementation.
Additionally, task distribution between divisions also became a focus, with the establishment of clear responsibilities for the homestay, guide, culinary, and marketing divisions and the assurance of effective communication flow to avoid miscommunication.
“Monitoring and evaluation systems were also discussed, including scheduling regular evaluations to assess the effectiveness of the SOP and providing space for tourist feedback to improve service quality,” she explained.
Just as importantly, she added, environmental management and sustainability were also addressed, with the drafting of an SOP to maintain the cleanliness of the tourism village and encourage artisans to use environmentally friendly materials in their products.
“With standardized SOPs, Gamplong Tourism Village is expected to improve the quality of its management, thereby providing a better tourist experience. Furthermore, the SOP is a crucial step in ensuring the sustainability of this tourism village in the future,” she stated.
Oenang reckoned that Gamplong has great potential to continue developing as a tourist destination that entertains and educates.
“Through collaboration between students, managers, and the local community, this village will be even more prepared to compete nationally and internationally,” she explained.
Author: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya