Boosting the Economy Through East Lombok Tourism
Sembalun Village has been known as a tourist spot in Lombok Regency for a long time. The beautiful natural panorama with extensive agricultural land is the main attraction for this region. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the tourism industry in this area worse. As a result, the income of the people in the Sembalun area has decreased.
This is felt by Arpaendi and Wathan as managers of the Sembalun tourist village.
"Before this pandemic, our tourist village could be visited by up to 400 people during holidays, but after the pandemic, our guests decreased, and also we competed with new photo spots," said Arpaendi.
He explained that the youth in the Sembalun area did not have a job due to the pandemic. However, he and several youths were allowed to manage a tourist village aimed at the general public.
Seeing these conditions, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) supported by BNP Paribas and Citi Indonesia through the BNP Paribas IDX30 Philanthropy Index Mutual Fund Social Fund equips BUMDes (Village-Owned Enterprises) management consisting of village youth, farmer groups, and other micro-economic actors to rise and rebuild their lives after the disaster.
One of the programs carried out is to build photo spots and cafeterias. These two new places were inaugurated on October 14, 2021. Not only building these two places, but WVI also provides training to increase the capacity of BUMDes administrators.
Through the construction of photo spots, the youth are now starting to feel the changes in the village. One of them began to stretch the tourists who visited Sembalun and took pictures or rested in the cafeteria.
"We are very happy with this photo spot because it adds to the attraction of people and tourists so they don't think of Sembalun as just a rest area," said Wathan.
Adding Wathan, Arpaendi also felt the changes and benefited from the various training he received. He said, "Alhamdulillah, from this training we use social media more for promotion."
Small and medium industry players in Sembalun have also benefited from this program. Various products produced by this industry, have also entered the cafeteria and are enjoyed by many people.
Now the people of Sembalun Village are starting to have an awareness of tourism development in their village. This is evident from the community's assistance in providing bamboo for road repairs for the convenience of visitors.
Written by: Siluh Puspita, Lombok Disaster Response Officer Wahana Visi Indonesia
