COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN THE PROMOTION TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM VILLAGE IN BATU, INDONESIA

Abstract

Several villages in Batu City are developed into tourism villages by optimizing all their potential to attract tourists. Each tourism village has unique resources, even though they have yet to be adequately promoted. The communities are given the power and strength to have the ability and initiative to be involved in promoting the tourism villages. This research aims to describe and analyze community empowerment in the field of promotion carried out by the Batu City Tourism Office to support the development of tourism villages. This qualitative research uses a phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews, non-participant observation, and documentation were carried out in data collection. The informants were selected using a non-probability technique with a purposive type consisting of representatives of the Batu City Tourism Office, village heads (Sidomulyo, Bumiaji, Punten, and Tulungrejo), tourism village managers, and tourism business actors in tourism villages. The data analysis technique uses an interactive model analysis developed by Miles and Huberman, which consists of data reduction, data display, conclusion drawing, and verification. The results of this research show that community empowerment in tourism village promotion is carried out by the Batu City Tourism Office in the form of organizing digital-based tourism village promotion training, facilitating the manufacture of tourism village promotion materials, and providing opportunities for the community (tourism village managers) to take part in tourism business forum. The impact of community empowerment is a change in the mindset and behavior in the community to play an active role in introducing and informing tourism villages. The novelty of this research is that empowerment in promotion activities has encouraged the tourism village managers in promoting their own tourism sites. Promoting tourism sites massively by the villagers can increase the number of visitors and economic activities rapidly. Keywords: Community Empowerment, Promotion, Tourism Village, Development, Batu DOI： https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.58.2.1