06 Februari 2014
Azhar Aziz Lubis, S.Pd.
Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri
Medan, Indonesia
Dedi Sanjaya, S.Pd
Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri
Medan, Indonesia
Abstract
The objective of
the paper was to find out solutions of the tourism problems in Indonesia
especially in potential rural areas. The problems comprised inhabitants’
disabilities in English, system management of the places and language usage in
promoting the sites. It was found that most of people at rural areas in
Indonesia are not really care about the way in increasing the tourism. Even
though our excursionists increased 8,8 percent from January to September 2013,
it does not mean that the increasing implied in rural areas too (http://antaranews.com). The
increasing number applied only in several famous cities such as Bali and
Lombok. The main problem in fostering tourism in Indonesia is inhabitants’
disabilities in English. The method that applied in writing the paper started
from the foreword which gave a brief explanation about problems of tourism in rural
areas in Indonesia then its’ solutions and benefits in applying writer’s
thought. Moreover, the writer also elaborates a tourism current situation in some
places. Based on the review of the literature, it was suggested that tourism
problems can be solved by strengthening the curriculum for students (KTSP)
which based on its’ culture and creating cultural council in every province.
Keywords: tourism, English, cultural council.
Foreword
Indonesia
is an archipelago country which has 17.504 islands. Those beautiful islands
consist of 9.634 unnamed and 7.870 named-islands (http://id.wikipedia.org). The 17.504
islands exist in the thirty three provinces all over Indonesia. Each island has
its beauty and uniqueness to be enjoyed. In other words, Indonesia is one of
the diamonds in the world. This paper will compare, contrast and analyze the
inhabitants’ disabilities in English, system management of the places and
language usage in promoting the sites. Afterwards, the writer would pose an
applicable solution in developing tourism in Indonesia.
Based
on the data of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), Indonesian Human
Development Index (IHDI) improved 1,3 percent per year. It was stated that the Human
Development Index in year 2011 was at 0,624 and slightly improved to 0,629 in
2012 (http://tempo.com). Furthermore, the director of UNDP for
Indonesia, Beate Trankman, stated that Indonesia still far from the average
point of Human Development Index in developing countries. Trankman stated that
mostly the Human Development Index in developing countries reached 0,640. While
Indonesia gained only 0,629, the Asia pacific countries gained 0,683 for human
development index. In other words, the human development index in Indonesia
needs much more government attention. From the UNDP data about Human
Development Index, we can infer that our education especially in reading
interest is very weak. In 2012, Indonesia occupied in the 124th of
187 countries in the world for Human Development Index which focused on
inhabitants’ basic needs, education, health and literacy (http://metro.kompasiana.com).
Even
though the government of Indonesia has implemented the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan
Pendidikan (KTSP), which is created based on Indonesian culture; it has not run
well yet. It is because the curriculum needs much more revision especially in
tourism and culture. This problem adversely affected to the inhabitants
disabilities in English. Surprisingly, most students in primary and secondary
school do not know well about their traditional dances, songs, foods and
tourism areas. They love much more about other culture rather than theirs which
considerably impact in their daily life. This situation impacts so much to
their disabilities in exploring their culture which English is used as tool of
communication.
On
the other hand, Indonesia as an archipelago country faces a crucial problem in
management the tourism sites and lack of facilities. In Lake Toba, North
Sumatera for instance, the management of tourism sites and its’ facilities are quite
miserable. Water pollution, illegal lodging and transportation are the most solicitous
problem until now. Otherwise, the head of Tourism Promotion Department of North
Sumatera, Arthur Batubara, stated that actually we already made a forum consisted
of eleven district-officers to discuss deeply about a good management for Lake
Toba (http://travel.kompas.com). Whereas, the constitution
number 32 in 2004 allows the local governments to plan, implement and evaluate
the utilization of natural and human resources in their areas in order to
improve public welfare. Moreover, based on the government regulation number 50 in
2011 about the master plan of national tourism from 2010 to 2025, stated that
national tourism comprised tourism destination, marketing, tourism industry and
tourism board which is involved local government. We already have good
regulations in maintaining our national tourism but unfortunately our human
resources are not ready to implement it yet. It is because the government does
not really concern more on how to revitalizes human resources by empowering the
education, in this case empowering the curriculum.
Yet,
in 2003 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) declared that the development
of tourism needed three aspects; 1) a coherent partnership among stakeholders,
2) delivery of profitable tourism product commercially but still gives benefits
to the stakeholders, and 3) focused on tourists, society, environment, social
and culture. Theoretically, tourism divided into three; 1) Natural resources such as waterfall, lake, forest etc, 2) Man-made resources such as ancient
buildings, masjid, museum, monument, etc, and 3) Human resources such as art performances, rituals, festival etc
(Anoviar, 2012). From the theory above, it can be infer that Indonesia is a
country which is rich in natural resources but not human resources. We have all
the three parts of tourism which classified by the experts previously.
Unfortunately,
there is a difference between Indonesia and five countries in Southeast Asian
with respect to foreign exchange earnings. While five countries in Southeast
Asia occupy a high number in foreign exchange earnings, Indonesia exists in the
lowest rate. Thailand for instance, occupied the highest income from its’
international tourism in 2005. It is because the government of Thailand
intensively gives more attention to their tourism.
The
main crucial problem is about English language usage in promoting the tourism
sites. It seems a simple problem but it has a great impact to the tourists. In
2007 the government of Indonesia, in this case the ministry of culture and
tourism, launched official website of Indonesia at http://www.indonesia.travel.
It was a government effort to promote Indonesia tourism sites massively to the
world. Unfortunately, it was not ran optimally because 1) there is no
interaction among visitors so that the communication runs passively, 2) there
is no integration of information to the local government so that the potency of
local tourism does not explored well and 3) there is no a dynamic information
about tourism (Anoviar, 2012). From the data, it can be concluded that
government efforts in fostering the tourism needs much more attention for human
development particularly in English achievement.
Discussion
Based
on the review of literature, it can be stimulated that our national tourism
need much more attention in order to improve public welfare. Indonesia with
its’ islands, considerably has much more chance to take the opportunity than
other countries in South East Asia. However, if the government focused only on
natural resources and ignored its’ attention to human resources especially in
education, the next generation of the country will lose its’ ability to
maintaining the country. Students in primary and secondary school should be
noticed much more than others. Developing national tourism means actualizing
and synchronizing the potency of natural and human resources which can be
applied by revitalization the curriculum (KTSP) and creating a controlling
tourism board and culture.
Revitalization
of curriculum (KTSP) by revising some aspects in it especially on culture and
tourism sites is a smart solution. Perhaps, it will not impact directly to the
public welfare nationally but it can be trusted that this planning will give
positive feedback in the future. The government should concern more on how to
make the inhabitants are able to communicate in English. We need to train and
familiarize our society especially those who lived in tourism sites by English.
Hopefully in the future, English is not only restricted as a subject in the
class but also it is a tool of communication among people. Nowadays, the usage
of English as a tool of communication spreads only in cities. Most of
inhabitants in rural areas cannot communicate well in English even only to
describe their house living. Therefore, empowering the curriculum (KTSP) by
adding some aspects of tourism in it, is an applicable solution to solve the
problem.
Surprisingly,
based on writer’s observation on the internet, there is no more website that promotes
Lake Toba which uses English except at http://www.indonesia.travel. It happened to the other tourism sites
too such as Bali and Lombok. The details of the tourism websites will elaborate
as follow:
No
|
Name of
Tourism Place
|
Official
Website / Information
|
Language Use
|
1
|
Lake
Toba
|
Bilingual
|
|
2
|
Bali
|
Bilingual
|
|
3
|
Lombok
|
Bilingual
|
If
we pay attention to the website, we would find that English language is not
optimally used. The official website seems has no attraction to grab the tourists.
It appears from its English language usage which is very normative. Even it
shows photos and description about tourism sites such as Lake Toba, it has no
sense of language that simplifies people to remember about Lake Toba.
Furthermore,
the government should empower stakeholders and the society especially those who
lived in the tourism rural areas to work together in order to foster our
tourism and increase the foreign exchange earnings.
The
last but not least, we can learn from other tourism areas in Indonesia which
had created cultural council such as Bali. We already know that Bali is the
most favorite tourism site to visit. It is not only caused of government
supports but also a good human and natural resources. Learning from Bali in
maintaining their tourism sites is a good experience. On the one hand, Bali as
a tourism site had a reputable name which recognized internationally so that we
do not have to think too much on how to foster its’ tourism anymore. On the
other hand, we should think deeply on how to create other potential tourism
sites in Indonesia to be similar as Bali. The writer believes by creating
cultural council in every state especially those tourism sites, would impact
positively to the culture and tourism of its area.
However, our national tourism and culture need
much more attention, not only from the government but also its society. Cultural
council, in writer’s opinion, will impact positively especially in 1)
protecting tourism sites, 2) to train inhabitants’ ability in speaking English,
3) promoting tourism sites, 4) empowering the society to make a better
handicraft of its area and 5) loving the motherland. Hopefully, these
recommendations would be able to familiarize significantly English as a tool of
communication among people in Indonesia especially in rural areas. Because the
writer believes that a good communication is an authorized capital to develop
our national tourism in our beloved country Indonesia.
In
conclusion, mastering English as a tool of communication is very important. In
order to foster our national tourism sites overseas, our inhabitants should
have a fair enough skill to communicate in English and should be familiar in
our society. English should be familiarized in order to improve our national
tourism sites.
References
Anoviar, Alia
Noor (2012), Implokasi Otonomi Daerah
Terhadap Eksistensi Kepariwisataan Nasional Melalui Revitalisasi Produk
Pariwisata Lokal Guna Mengoptimalkan Potensi SDM di Indonesia, Depok:
Management Department of Universitas Indonesia.
http://id.wikipedia.org. Accessed on
December 4, 2013
http://www.ambonekspres.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=449:pengelolaan-objek-wisata-belum-optimal&Itemid=648. Accessed on
December 4, 2013
http://www.bppaudnireg1.com/buletin/read.php?id=47&dir=1&idStatus=0.
Accessed on December 4, 2013.
Peraturan Pemerintah
Republik Indonesia No. 50 Tahun 2011 tentang Rencana Induk Pembangunan
Kepariwisataan Nasional Tahun 2010-2025.
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