Resilience of the Bromo Tengger Semeru tourism village community through optimizing agricultural resources during the covid pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has been running for more than a year, has become a global shock. Many sectors are affected, including tourism. The tourism community becomes a vulnerable group when the tourism closure rules are enforced. One of their efforts to remain resilient during the covid pandemic is to optimize the agricultural resources they have. The objectives of this study are: (1) Identifying groups of tourism actors who are vulnerable due to the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) Analyzing agriculture-based resilience strategies carried out by the community in order to be able to withstand economic shocks. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study research design. The research location is in the village of Gubugklakah as one of the buffer villages in the Bromo Tengger Semeru area. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews with research informants who are tourism actors. Data analysis uses the interactive model of Miles and Huberman. Meanwhile, the validity of the data is done by triangulation of sources and methods. The results of the study show that many tourism actors are vulnerable during the covid pandemic, namely: homestay managers, transportation service managers (jeeps), tour guides, culinary entrepreneurs, citrus picking agrotourism farmers, and so on. The strategy used by the tourism community in dealing with the pandemic is to re-manage agriculture. This is because before becoming a tourist village, the community relied on the agricultural sector, especially horticulture. Land management is carried out not only on private land, but also on Perhutani land (Komplangan) so as to increase their productivity. In addition, the culture of the local community which is still strong with the nature of mutual cooperation is able to help each other to face the crisis together.