Research Article,  J Tourism Res Hospitality Vol: 12 Issue: 2

The Assessment of “Balkondes” Organization Management in Muslim-Friendly Tourism Villages around Borobudur Temple, Yogyakarta

Anang Sutono^1*, Sumaryadi¹, Wisnu Rahtomo², Faisal F. Puksi³, Odang Permana⁴, Shaharuddin Tahir⁵, Azwin Aksan⁶ and Kumar Ashutosh⁷

¹Department of Tourism Business Management, Bandung Institute of Tourism, Bandung, Indonesia

²Department of Tourism Destination Management, Bandung Institute of Tourism, Bandung, Indonesia

³Department of Tour Management, Bandung Institute of Tourism, Bandung, Indonesia

⁴Department of Destination Study, Bandung Institute of Tourism, Bandung, Indonesia

⁵Department of Tourism, University Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia

⁶Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, University of Technology MARA, Selangor, Malaysia

⁷Department of Tourism Management, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

*Corresponding Author: Anang Sutono
Department of Tourism Business Management at Bandung, Institute of Tourism, Bandung, Indonesia,
Tel: (+62) 8122402770
E-mail: anang@stp-bandung.ac.id

Received date: 21 December, 2022, Manuscript No. JTRH-22-84377;
Editor assigned date: 23 December, 2022, PreQC No. JTRH-22-84377 (PQ);
Reviewed date: 06 January, 2023, QC No. JTRH-22-84377;
Revised date: 01 March, 2023, Manuscript No. JTRH-22-84377 (R);
Published date: 08 March, 2023, DOI: 10.4172/2324-8807.1001008

Citation: Sutono A, Sumaryadi, Rahtomo W, Puksi FF, Permana O, et al. (2023) The Assessment of “Balkondes” Organization Management in Muslim- Friendly Tourism Villages around Borobudur Temple, Yogyakarta. J Tourism Res Hospitality 12:2.

Abstract

Keywords: Assessment; Muslim-friendly tourism; Tourism village; Tourism organization; Organization management

Introduction

Halal tourism has been recorded to have continued to grow steadily since 2000. The global growth of Muslim travelers grew rapidly from 25 million in 2000 to 140 million in 2018 or growing 25% per year [1]. This growth is predicted to continue to increase to 230 million with a turnover of USD 300 billion (4,200 trillion) in 2026. Halal tourism has now become a global mainstream market, not just a niche market. Halal tourism is a current and very promising tourism trend. Efforts to meet the need for tourist destinations that are friendly to Muslim tourists are a very rational and profitable choice [2].

Many countries, both Islamic and non-Islamic countries, believe in this and seek to make halal tourism one of the focuses of tourism development including Indonesia. Until 2018, Indonesia's Halal tourism market grew by 15% and attracted 2.6 million foreign Muslim tourists (ministry of tourism's halal tourism development acceleration team, 2019) [3-6].

The development of tourism trends based on beliefs and pilgrimages, especially Muslim tourists, has triggered many scholars to research the intricacies and holistic studies of this matter [7]. The following are some previous studies which in addition to triggering this research, but at the same time strengthen the basis of this research as a whole.

Indonesia, as the largest Muslim country in the world, has enormous potential to become a world halal tourism destination. The strength of halal tourism lies in the readiness of the destination to accept Muslim tourist visits. Tourism destinations must be able to meet the specific needs of Muslim tourists during their travels [8]. The development of tourism product components, which include amenities, attractions, and accessibility, needs to be aligned with the profiles, needs, expectations, and preferences of Muslim tourists [9]. This is very important to create quality products for halal tourism destinations.

Meeting the needs, expectations, and preferences of Muslim tourists will make tourists feel satisfied and increase the potential for repeat tourist visits. The existence of additional specific 'requirements' to fulfill the needs of being a Muslim when traveling, requires destinations to understand the profile of visiting Muslim tourists and make this information one of the main considerations in its development [10].

The development of Indonesian halal tourism gained momentum in 2019. Indonesian halal tourism was ranked 1^st as the world's best halal tourism destination with Malaysia master card-crescent rating, 2019. However, this achievement has not been accompanied by the ability to attract Muslim foreign tourists. Indonesia is still far behind Malaysia. Malaysia managed to reach 5.38 million Muslim foreign tourists in 2017, compared to Indonesia which was only 2.6 million in 2018 [11].

One of Indonesia's strategic steps in encouraging the development of halal tourism is to assess and rank the IMTI (Indonesia Muslim Travel Index). The existence of IMTI is considered capable of capturing positive growth in Indonesia's 10 leading tourism destinations. This can be seen in the positive growth of all leading halal tourism destinations from 2018 to 2019 master card-crescent rating, 2019. The results are carried out using the same criteria as the GMTI (Global Muslim Travel Index). IMTI assessment is also carried out directly by master card-crescent rating, the organizer of GMTI [12]. The use of the GMTI criteria, which are designed to assess a country globally, is deemed necessary to adjust the indicators used to be more relevant to the characteristics of tourism destinations in Indonesia.

The positive growth trend can be a trigger for all destinations to further improve the ranking of their leading halal tourism destinations, Yogyakarta is no exception. Yogyakarta is one of the destinations in Indonesia which is the main destination for every tourist who visits both domestic and foreign tourists with its attractions, one of which is the Borobudur temple which is administratively included in the Magellan Regency, Central Java province [13]. The large number of tourists visiting Borobudur temple is not a guarantee that it will increase the income and welfare of the people around the temple. Based on Magelang Regency data in 2021 figures, Borobudur district ranks second in the largest number of poor people in Magelang regency (BPS, Magelang regency in numbers, 2021). Surprisingly, Borobudur temple is located in Borobudur district. This shows that a large number of tourist visits does not necessarily provide benefits for the welfare of the surrounding community [14]. Therefore, research is needed on the organizational management of the village economic center (Balkondes) as a village business unit so that it can play a maximum role in improving the economy and welfare of the village community.

This research focuses on the governance of the Balkondes management organization in the Borobudur district. The management organization concept with the SITIE approach (Synergy, Integration, Transactions, Investment, and Education) is used as a guide in determining the criteria for assessing the governance of Muslim-friendly tourist villages.

The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the actual condition of Balkondes in Borobudur district and to develop tourist villages around Borobudur temple as Muslim-friendly tourist villages.

Materials and Methods

This research was conducted with a quantitative approach to identify the actual condition of the role of Balkondes in tourist villages around Borobudur temple, Magelang Regency, Central Java province. For this purpose, this study uses a descriptive method to more deeply explore the conditions of management of the Balkondes management organization in the tourist village around Borobudur temple. This research was conducted through several stages, namely; conducting a concept review and theoretical description of the management organization concept with the SITIE approach (Synergy, Integration, Transaction, Investment, and Education); identifying aspects of SITIE; as well as assessing the management of the Balkondes management organization for Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple.

Data collection in this study was carried out in several ways, namely, through literature studies, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), as well as by conducting surveys, and interviews. FGDs were conducted by involving relevant stakeholders, including; community (represented by the core management of Balkondes in tourist villages around Borobudur temple), industry (represented by tourism business actors, both accommodation services, food and drink services), and government (represented by the village government and BUMN-PT. Taman Wisata Candi).

The analysis used to identify the potential in this research is to use the management organization concept approach with the SITIE approach. The SITIE approach is an approach to assessing the role of a management organization in carrying out its functions in Muslim-friendly tourist villages. The assessment criteria contained in the SITIE model consist of 5 (five) variables. The five variables are; synergy, integration, transaction, investment, and education [15]. Each of these variables consists of 29 dimensions, and each of these dimensions also consists of several assessment indicators, so the total assessment indicators in the SITIE model are 60 indicators.

The relationship between the science of belief and the philosophy of divinity with the science that studies travel or recreational needs have existed for a long time. The motivation to travel to visit religious holy places or simply retrace the development of religion is one of the motivations that has emerged long ago and continues to be carried out by most religious people in the world. However, the development of this trend has not been matched by a mature and comprehensive study with the lack of studies on tourism and religious beliefs/principles. And as an implication of the lack of studies on tourism based on the principle of religion/belief, until now its development in several tourist destinations in the world is still lacking.

The emergence of halal tourism terminology is the result of efforts to meet the needs of Muslim tourists and become a tourism market that continues to increase. The meaning of halal tourism or what some people call Islamic tourism is a type of tourism development that pays attention to special principles according to religious teachings/Islamic beliefs, especially in providing daily needs (Table 1).

Table 1: Previous research on halal Muslim-friendly tourism development.

The development of halal tourism is not only a need for Muslim tourists but also for tourists with other beliefs/religions. This is based on the fact that halal tourism products are considered to have better quality and are managed with strict principles. In addition, the development of halal tourism is also based on respect for others and trust/honesty in its provision which ultimately gives birth to guarantees regarding the quality of products and services that will be received by tourists, whoever it is. Therefore, the development of tourism that has been devoted to halal tourism needs to pay attention to special principles as a wedge between tourism science and the teachings of religion/belief so that it can accommodate tourists properly, and can provide guarantees regarding correct practice according to applicable teachings [16].

Results and Discussion

After the FGD was conducted, the collected data were then analyzed using the SITIE model to assess the extent of the role of Balkondes in carrying out its functions in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple. Assessment is carried out on each variable, dimension, and indicator [17].

The first assessment is an assessment based on indicators. This assessment is carried out to see which indicators are the strongest indicators of each dimension. The results of the assessment of the role of Balkondes in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple based on indicators are as follows (Table 2).

Table 2: Assessment of the role of Balkondes in Muslim-friendly tourism villages around Borobudur temple based on indicators.

From the Table 2 above, it can be seen that product indicators and regional/regional MFT marketing programs are in sync; and there is a sustainable joint program that has the highest score among other indicators [18]. This shows that the role of Balkondes in creating products and marketing programs has been well established.

The second assessment is an assessment based on dimensions. This assessment is carried out to see which dimension is the strongest dimension of each variable. The results of the assessment of the role of Balkondes in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple based on dimensions are as follows.

As seen in Figures 1-3, in the synergy variable, the dimension of strengthening halal tourism institutions is the strongest in the role of Balkondes management organizations in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple, while in the integration variable, the strongest dimension in the role of Balkondes management organizations in Muslim-friendly tourist villages (Figure 4). Around the Borobudur temple is the dimension of data and information harmonization of the halal industry and Muslim Friendly Tourism (MFT) [19]. For the transaction variable, the dimension that is considered to be the strongest in the role of the Balkondes management organization in the Muslim-friendly tourist village around the Borobudur temple is the dimension of activating the MFT market and halal traditional market (Figure 5).

In addition, for the other two variables, namely the investment variable and the education variable, the strongest dimension in the role of the Balkondes management organization in the Muslim-friendly tourist village around Borobudur temple is the dimension of creating incentives or funding for Muslim-friendly MSMEs for the investment variable and the dimension of developing and creating education and digital MFT training for the education variable.

Meanwhile, the third assessment is an assessment based on variables. The results of the assessment of Pager Harjo village based on the variables are as follows.

Figure 6 shows that the role of Balkondes for Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple in involving the role of MFT stakeholders in tourist villages around Borobudur temple is quite good so that the synergy process between MFT stakeholders can be well established. The thing that needs to be improved is when Balkondes plays the role of an integrator to complement the available resources and the adaptation process to the structure of activities in MFT needs to be improved again. Overall, the actual condition of the role of Balkondes management organizations in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple is currently considered good enough in carrying out its function to develop Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple. This is shown in Figure 7, where the overall value of the role of Balkondes management organizations in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple is 76.25.

Conclusion

Increasing the welfare of the community in tourist villages does not only depend on the potential and resources it has, but the role of the village management organization plays a very important role in improving the welfare of the village community. Balkondes is a form of business unit owned by the village, one of which is to manage a tourist village business so that it can provide added value for the village community so that in the end it can improve the welfare of the village community. Therefore, the role of the Balkondes management organization in a village has an important position in carrying out all village economic activities.

Based on the results of the assessment of each variable, dimension, and indicator, the role of Balkondes in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple currently has advantages in the synergy variable, especially on the indicator “regional/regional MFT marketing programs and products are synchronous, and there is a continuous joint program”. Meanwhile, the indicator that still needs to be addressed is “MFT product information is connected to digital and non-digital regional platforms”. Overall, the role of Balkondes in Muslim-friendly tourist villages around Borobudur temple is considered to be quite good in carrying out its function to develop Muslim-friendly tourist villages in tourist villages around Borobudur temple.

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