Kemenparekraf and Politap Assist Sei Awan Kiri Village in Becoming a Tourism Village

Politeknik Negeri Ketapang (Ketapang State Polytechnic), in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf), is deeply committed to improving tourism village management in Ketapang Regency. This effort was carried out through the Technical Guidance (Bimtek) for Tourism Village Assistance on Saturday, 22 August 2020. The event was held at the Grand Zuri Hotel on Jalan Panjaitan, Ketapang City, and attended by 25 participants representing the Tanjung Belandang Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis), IAR (International Animal Rescue) Ketapang, and village officials from Sungai Awan Kiri Village, Muara Pawan District, Ketapang Regency. Before the event began, all participants and resource persons were required to undergo a rapid test in collaboration with RB Fatima Hospital Ketapang.

The Technical Guidance activity was opened by Agus Indra Setyawan, Head of the Competency Standards Section at the Directorate of Tourism Human Resource Development, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia. In his briefing remarks to the participants, Agus Indra Setiawan urged that local culture and customs be maintained in daily life, as a tourism village will be more appealing when showcasing local culture and arts.

Martanto, Head of the Tanjung Belandang Tourism Village Development Assistance Team, stated that the technical guidance held by Kemenparekraf was crucial for developing and advancing tourism villages in West Kalimantan, particularly in Ketapang. This activity was a follow-up to various steps previously taken, ranging from program socialization, proposal selection, signing of cooperation agreements, technical guidance for speakers, to technical guidance sessions for the community. The speakers for the tourism village assistance Technical Guidance included: Martanto, Betti SEP, Munawar Kholil, Ahmad Ravi, A.Nova Zulfahmi, Darmanto, and Muhammad Iqbal R (a homestay practitioner), with topics covering: The implementation of CHSE, Packaging, exploring,Sapta Pesona, homestay and others.

Martanto conveyed that the Tanjung Belandang Tourism Village holds immense potential, including mangrove forest ecotourism, beach tourism, and Orangutan conservation tourism. The speakers agreed that an essential aspect of tourism village management is enhancing human resource quality. Basically, a tourism village is not merely about visitors arriving and leaving; rather, the concept being developed encourages tourists to come, interact with locals, and adapt directly to daily life within the community, allowing them to truly experience life in a tourism village.

Meanwhile, the Village Secretary of Sungai Awan Kiri expressed great satisfaction and hoped that the knowledge gained would bring about community change in empowering the tourism village's potential to attract tourists, thereby boosting the local economy (marta2)