Indonesia’s rural villages offer lessons for global tourism

Up in the central highlands of Java, Indonesia, the village of Dieng Kulon seemingly floats in the clouds. Frosty and wet, and home of the Indonesian potato crop, Dieng Kulon, on the Dieng Plateau, it is unlike the Indonesia most of the tourists come to see. Yet this mysterious place could prove a model for tourism as Indonesia recovers from the damage wrought by COVID-19.

In Indonesia, the number of foreign tourists visiting during the pandemic dropped to around 4 million people in 2020, about a quarter of the usual number. In February, hotel occupancy was still at 49 percent. However, by April it had dropped to just 12 percent. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indonesian tourism sector can also be seen from the reduction in working hours. Approximately 12.91 million people in the tourism sector had their hours reduced, and 939,000 people in the tourism sector lost their jobs.

One of the ways back for the struggling Indonesian tourism sector may be community-based tourism or what the Indonesian called as desa wisata or rural tourism. The concept bloomed after the enactment of Village Law in 2015 as a source of village income. Tourism activities in desa wisata are conceived by and led by the community, such as managing and renting accommodation, selling souvenirs, food and so on. By involving the villagers, income goes directly to the village, not private companies, rich entrepreneurs or the government. When COVID-19 crippled international tourism, domestic desa wisata allowed rural tourist villages to survive.