ural Community’s Capacity Building in the Context of

Community-based Development of Tourism

Muryanto Amin

, Muhammad Arifin Nasution

Departement of Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Dr. A Sofyan No.1,

edan 20155

,Indonesia,

Keywords: Tourism, Rural, Community Capacity.

Abstract: Tourism is an activity that touches and involves public in direct way, so that it brings a variety of

benefits to local communities and tourism. It even smashes an incredible energy, which is able to

make local communities change in various aspects. Villagers - who incidentally are the current

tour players – have such poor quality which are far from the ideal ones in running professional

travel agents. If this problem can not be solved, the development of tourism would likely have an

adverse impact on people's lives, owing to the lack of competitiveness of society in tourism

businesses. This service programs used Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods in which

the community will be actively involved in the empowerment program. The objective of this

program is to improve community capacity in professional travel business management in the

future.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is a large archipelago inhabited by different

races, tribes, and ethnic. Each different region has its

own advantages – including the natural potentials.

They are certainly advantageous for tourism.

Indonesia is also a country with a wide-range of

cultures and tourism, not only blessed with fertile

land and natural beauty, but also endowed with

culture and tourism, which have become its attraction.

The abundant Indonesian cultures have substantial

point to support the development of tourism.

Tourism is an activity that directly touches and

involves public, so that it brings a variety of benefits

to the local community and those surrounding areas.

Tourism has even smashed tremendous energy, which

is able to make local people’s experience change in

its various aspects. Tourism has many benefits to

society, even for the country itself. The benefits of

tourism can be seen from such various aspects: they

are in terms of economic, social, cultural,

environmental, social values, and science as well as

opportunities and employment.

North Sumatra is one of the provinces in

Indonesia with very abundant potentials to be

developed into a tourist destination. We can not get

away from Lake Toba, a tourist destination in

Samosir. One of the most popular destinations in

North Sumatra, this region is always worth travelers’

attraction, either domestic or foreign. No wonder if

Lake Toba always attracts the attention of visitors,

because it offers great views and beautiful natural

scenery, vast expanse of the lake and the green

mountains that surrounds.

One of the tourist sites that shows how Parmalim

belief is still remaining from time to time can be

found in Huta Tinggi Village, District Palipi,

Samosir. Parmalim itself was better known as Ugamo

Malim in its own town. Historically, Parmalim was

first initiated by a datu named Guru Somaliang

Pardede, a very close man to

SISINGAMANGARAJA XII (the last king of

Sisingamangaraja dynasty). This school was run by

followers Sisingamangaraja (especially by two

lieutenants, Guru Somaliang and His Majesty King

Naipospos), with the aim to protect the beliefs and

traditional culture of Toba Batak from the Christian,

the Islam, and the Dutch colonialists’ influences

(Sidjabat 1983: 326).

Community-based tourism is not a brand new

thing in Indonesia. Act No. 10 Year 2009 on Tourism

gives an enough idea of how the community plays

1776

Amin, M. and Nasution, M.

Rural Community’s Capacity Building in the Context of Community-based Development of Tourism.

DOI: 10.5220/0010100317761779

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1776-1779

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

role in the development of tourism business in

Indonesia. One concept that describes the role of

communities in tourism development is Community-

Based Tourism (CBT) .In conceptual way, the basic

principle of community-based tourism is have people

act as main actors through community empowerment

in various tourism activities, so that the maximum

benefit of tourism would be for the public

community. In the context of tourism development,

the community should run such independently assets

mobilization. Hence, the value becomes a major

attraction for travelers. Through the concept of

Community Based Tourism, every individual in the

community is directed to be part of the tourism-

economic chain, for which individuals are given the

skills to develop small businesses.

Presidential Decree No. 49 Year 2016 may

actually be evidence that the central government is

committed to the implementation of Lake Toba

development. Therefore, improving the quality of the

people in it should be encouraged. The Lake Toba

tourism development will only be a mere ambitious

project if the community in which quality

improvement is not committed well. It is supported

by the reality on the ground remains which are still

many shortcomings, either in the form of lack of

facilities and infrastructure, as well as the quality of

the community.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Community Service activity was conducted using

three approaches, namely:

2.1 Preparation

The socialization is a means to provide an

understanding of related community phases of

community service programs. As for some of the

activities in the socialization phase are:

 Introduction of the concept of devotion

In this section the team will explain the

methods that will be used during the ongoing

process of service.

 Related Concepts Understanding

Strengthening Tourism

In this section pengbdian team will provide

insight into the various policies related to

tourism in Indonesia. in addition, the team

will provide various examples of case

studies related to the concept of community-

based tourism which had been applied both

in Indonesia and overseas.

2.2 Participatory Learning and Action

(PLA)

This phase will involve the whole society in the

village. This method helps improve the sensitivity of

the community right to see the various problems they

encounter. There are several activities in this phase

include:

 Questionnaires

Questionnaires will be conducted in two

stages, before training and after training.

Questionnaires were distributed to

determine how the initial understanding and

evaluation of activities.

 In-class discussion

 Objective: to cultivate sensitivity

(awareness) and build frameworks

(framework of thinking)

 Activity: exposure of each

representative group of problems

related to tourism in the village.

 Case Study

 Objective: as a means to improve

society's ability to solve problems

encountered in the village communal.

 Activity: creating a concept problem to

be able to be completed by every stake

holder in it according to their

respective roles.

 English Language Training.

 Objective: improve the ability of

English Society.

 Activity: the team will coordinate with

the village to create a group to study

English. The training was conducted

for 3 months (according to the old

training activities) with the intensity of

twenty-seven meetings.

2.3 Repairing System (Improvement

System)

This phase focuses on improving the planning system

owned by the village.

 Objective: help the villagers in repairing its

focus of development planning in the

development of community-based tourism.

 Activity: facilitators create a SWOT analysis

for the village and provide a discussion for

and by the village government and its

society. The village and the community then

Rural Community’s Capacity Building in the Context of Community-based Development of Tourism

1777

create a scheme of repairing system that

could solve this problem as long as they are

natural.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

From the observations made by the team, there are

five prioritized problems that become obstacles in

creating the community-based tourism in Huta

Ginjang Village, District Palipi, Samosir. These

problems are:

 The lack of public awareness of policies on

tourism.

 Society that tends to be pessimism about

the development of their tourism.

 Village development plans still do not have

a clear concept.

 The lack of the villagers’ English language

skills in Huta Ginjang.

 System of travel location management is

still using a very simple and unprofessional

system.

Looking at the problems occurred in Huta

Ginjang, there are some solutions that can be drawn

from the highest priority. It is important to do an

understanding of the concepts related public policy

related to tourism in Indonesia. Then it must be

recognized that economic activity in the field of

tourism in Huta Ginjang can not significantly

influence the economic improvement of rural

communities. In this case, such comprehension on

how to do professional tourism business must be

made.

Development plan of Huta Ginjang is still not yet

to place tourism development as priority in rural

development. Observing Act No. 6 Year 2016 about

village, it depends on a mandate that every village in

Indonesia should be developed in accordance with its

characteristics. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) will

be seen about the vision and mission of the

community and village government-related tourism,

so the result of FGD can be used as reference in the

future establishment of village development plans.

The lack of English language skills of the

villagers’ in Huta Ginjang make themselves difficult

to communicate with the foreign tourists. This can be

overcome by conducting English language training

for rural society - at the same time improving the

quality of the people in Huta Ginjang. Then, the

tourism industry requires the attitude and

commitment from all stakeholders. This approach of

case studies in various locations that has successfully

implemented the concept of community-based

tourism will be easier to show how tourism is also

true and promising economic value and has a good

impact on the community in various aspects.

On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, Institute of

Community Services University of Sumatra Utara

made a visit in Huta Tinggi headman’s office. The

presence of a team was to determine the

implementation schedule for a series of community

service. The team was welcomed by the headman of

Huta Ginjang, Mr. Kornel Naibaho. Along with such

warm talks, Mr. Kornel Naibaho revealed that the

villagers in Huta Ginjang had been waiting for a team

that had been previously planned at the time of

proposal submission. The meeting agreed on the

training and seminars in the framework of public

service activities - undertaken by the Institute of

Community Services, University of Sumatra Utara -

which held 3 times in June 2018.

The team implemented Participatory Learning

and Action (PLS) as an effort to increase the capacity

of communities’ to the concept of community-based

tourism. There were several activities that had been

carried out in the framework of PLA implementation,

namely In-class discussion in the mean of seminar -

held on June 5, 2018 at the St. Yosef Catholic Church

of Huta Ginjang. The seminar was attended by 35

participants comprising representatives of the various

groups.

During this seminar, the team enlighted a variety

of materials related to the role of rural communities

in travel industry such as tourism. The team explained

that tourism is one source of foreign exchange, apart

from oil and gas potential. It also has a larger share in

building the economy within its currently slow

growth. The material was submitted to give a stimulus

to the people to look back at the social, cultural,

political, and legal condition around them in order to

establish a tourism business. The people’s sensitivity

in viewing such social, cultural, political, and legal

condition will ease the team to bring up public

awareness.

The following phase of the evaluation team of

servants:

Figure 1: Phase of the evaluation team of servants.

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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4 CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of community service carried out by

the Institute of Community Services, University of

Sumatra Utara received overwhelming response from

the public and the rural government of Huta Ginjang.

This is evidenced by the participation of rural

communities for a series of activities carried out. It

was concluded that the lack of understanding of the

policy on tourism and a lack of English proficiency

will have a negative impact on tourism in Huta

Ginjang.

Commitment to the community in implementing

the concept of community-based tourism began to

take shape. This is evidenced by their commitment to

the formation of a tourism-conscious group in Huta

Ginjang. Therefore, people should distribute a plenty

of aspirations they have to be more active in

interacting with the local village government and

village administration Huta Ginjang must

demonstrate its commitment to support the

development of tourism in by forming various

regulatory support to improve their tourism.

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