Guest Lecture: The Role of Community Engagement in Ecotourism

Tourism development often experiences obstacles with the emergence of social and environmental issues that occur in society. To increase students’ sensitivity about this issue, the Applied Foreign Language Study Program invited an Ecotourism expert from IPB University, Mrs. Kania S. Rahayu, S.I.Kom., M.PAR., MTHM., as a guest lecturer in a public lecture entitled “Supporting SDGs Through Ecotourism” on November 22, 2024.

In this public lecture, Ms. Kania presented a material entitled “The Role of Community Engagement in Ecotourism”. According to Ms. Kania, there are 5 principles in ecotourism, namely nature-based, ecologically sustainable, environmentally educative, beneficial to local communities, and giving satisfaction to visitors. Therefore, community involvement in ecotourism development is very important. The goal is mainly to control the impact on the environment. Community involvement in ecotourism can include the following.

1. Contribution of ideas or opinions in the management of an ecotourism.
2. Labor participation is given in the form of the implementation of efforts that can support the success of an ecotourism management.
3. Exhibiting local crafts as one of the tourist attractions.

Community-based ecotourism can be proposed as a solution to overcome tourism development issues. This can begin with the formation of institutions for tourism management in the region. Furthermore, management in the form of establishing homestays, local tour guides, and developing facilities/ infrastructure can be carried out independently by local residents. Local communities can also explore the potential of tourism in their area such as processing original raw materials from their area, making traditional cutlery, and establishing local industries.

At the end of the lecture, the speaker said that active community involvement in every aspect of ecotourism planning and implementation can create a sustainable and mutually beneficial tourism ecosystem. Collaboration with academics can also be done so that local residents can explore the tourism potential in the ecotourism development area.