19 August 2024
Syafrijal S.Kom
Humbahas - The Community Service Institute (LPPM) of the University of North Sumatra (USU) through the Community Service Team chaired by Samerdanta Sinulingga, S.ST.Par., M.Par., Lecturer of the USU Vocational Faculty's Travel Tour together with USU Students and the Parsingguran II Village Apparatus of Humbang Hasundutan Regency initiated the creation of a tourism magazine to encourage the expansion of information on tourist attractions in Parsingguran II Village as a tourism service partner.
"Usually, if we buy an entrance ticket to an area where the tourism manager is the village community or an extension of the district government, they only charge an entrance ticket, there is no transaction of dense, concise, clear tourism information to visitors. Paying for an entrance ticket is often labeled as paying for parking only. This is very wrong. Tourists pay an entrance ticket not for parking, they enter a tourist location they want to know, how many tourist spots there are, what activities are there, are there any products created by the village community that need to be known, are there any cultural events that are happening or will happen. So whoever pays the entrance ticket, we show them a magazine containing tourist attractions in the area. That is what is called a balanced transaction, between the entrance ticket and the information consumed by guests or tourists," said Samerdanta representing the USU Pemas team, recently.
Through this tourist magazine, Samerdanta hopes that the distribution of tourists visiting Parsingguran Village can be even, not only focused on one hamlet, namely hamlet 7 which has a view of Lake Toba. If so, the tourist village will not be achieved, what will exist is a Tourist Hamlet instead of a Tourist Village.
"The key to our tourist location is focused on Penatapan Sileme-leme, that's where we make it a meeting point for business transactions. What I mean by business transactions is, in Sileme-leme, tourist registration is via entrance tickets, and where tourists consume all information through tourist magazines. When tourists enter Sileme-leme, they will be given a receipt, like when we buy goods at Indomaret, there is a printed paper, there is a barcode, if you scan the barcode, a link will be issued to open a digital tourist magazine. Well, it is impossible for all tourists who come to be tech-savvy, maybe some are not tech-savvy or are not used to seeing tourist locations using gadgets, they are uncomfortable or maybe they forgot to bring glasses. This is where the strategy is, a hard copy tourism magazine will be a reliable attacker in disseminating information. So we have hard copy and soft copy," he explained.
Samerdanta is very optimistic about the challenges that occur, namely where the majority of the community were previously farmers, this will require a long process and learning to make the people of Parsingguran II Village aware of tourism.
"They must be surprised, usually planting rice, suddenly told to become tourism people, USU will help the community, gradually and provide a way for the community to be comfortable with tourism. How? Well, create a tourism magazine. This tourism magazine must make tourists ask questions and want to come to the locations shown in the magazine. Then where will they ask and ask for help? Definitely to the community. This is the beginning of the value chain between residents and tourism activities in this village," he said.
As a lecturer who is very expert in the field of tourism and has seen the personality of village-scale communities in managing tourism in North Sumatra, Samerdanta wants to go against the flow of most tragic stories of tourism in North Sumatra.
"We have seen how the image of Siosar went viral so that it was deserted and there were no tourists, many closed. We have seen the image of Debuk-debuk. We have seen that at the beginning of Pelaruga Langkat's rise, there was a lot of illegal levies. This happened because the distribution of tourists was uneven, or I contrast it: there was an uneven flow of money to the community. This turmoil is what gave rise to new criminal movements. However, with this tourism magazine, every tourism potential down to the hamlet scale can be informed to tourists, so that tourists can come to all areas of the village, no villagers feel oppressed because no tourists come to their place. If tourists have come to small areas such as hamlets, then the fifth principle of Pancasila which is interpreted as equality and justice, is achieved," he said.
Samerdanta added that the tourism magazine would not contain detailed information. It will be made as 'hanging' or incomplete information. This was created to arouse curiosity for tourists so that they want to know and ask the residents directly. The implementation of this community service has a positive impact on the village.
