Sleman, home of a thousands tourist villages

Sleman, home of a thousands tourist villages

Bambang M, Contributor, Yogyakarta

The district of Sleman has discovered a new way to increase
the income of its residents -- turning its many unique villages
into tourist attractions.

According to Destha Titi Raharjana of Gadjah Mada University
(UGM)'s Center for Tourism Studies, the rapid growth in the
number of tourist villages in Sleman since early 2000 is due to a
change in the interests of tourists, who now like to enjoy
quieter, more authentic and unique places. They also consider the
cultural and environmental aspects in deciding which tourist
destinations to visit.

G. Djoko Purwanggono of the Association of Indonesian Tourist
Guides echoed Destha's opinion, saying that since the 1990s he
had found that many foreign tourists no longer showed a great
eagerness to visit Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple or the
Yogyakarta kraton (palace).

"They prefer to visit places where other tourists don't
visit," said Djoko, who is also a guide for French tourists,
adding that village life and its originality could be an
alternative answer to meeting such a growing demand.

To turn a place into a tourist village actually does not
require much apart from its having a unique potential that no
other place has. The more unique and exclusive a place is, the
more interesting it will be for tourists.

In the case of Sleman Regency, UGM's Center for Tourism
Studies has recorded some 27 villages that serve as tourist
destinations.

One of those villages is Tanjung, 11 kilometers north of
Yogyakarta. It's one of the most visited places. Having 40
homestays, the village offers the beautiful landscape of a
typical Javanese kampong along with ancient rituals, exotic food
and daily agricultural activities.

"A group of Japanese tourists once came here to learn how to
cultivate rice," said villager Djamhadi.

Foreign tourists, however, are not the only guests that the
village is trying to attract. Many domestic tourists, mostly from
big cities like Jakarta, have also visited the village for a
similar reason -- a desire to taste the village way of life.

"Staying in a village to taste its way of life is the main
concept behind developing a tourist village," Destha said .

The good part of this kind of agricultural tourism is that
there is no need to construct new facilities for the visiting
guests. Tourists want to see the village as it is. The original
look of a kampong is all that the tourists want to see.

Srowolan hamlet, some 17 kilometers north of Yogyakarta, is
another example of a village worth visiting in Sleman. It has a
traditional market building constructed in 1921 and a former
Dutch tax office.

Each tourist village in Sleman basically has its own
characteristics and specific attractions. In the northern part of
Sleman regency, for example, tourists can enjoy villages that
offer agritourism attractions, including salak (zalacca)
plantations and cool mountain weather. Jambu, Trumpon, and Kelor
villages are some of the villages that offer these attractions.

Ketingan hamlet in the northern part of Sleman is just like
the other villages in the surrounding area. Except for the fact
that it has become a place where thousands of egrets nest over
the last few years. As a result, foreign and domestic tourists
are now visiting the village to enjoy the amazing scene of
thousands of egrets leaving their nests in the morning and coming
back in the evening.

"The reason why we want to make it a tourist village is to
save the environment. In order to do so, we will require visitors
to plant melinjo (Gnetum gnemon), the favorite type of vegetation
of the egrets in which to make their nests, said Haryono, head of
Tridadi village, which includes Ketingan hamlet.

Apart from their uniqueness, their proximity to Mount Merapi
is also one of the factors that has encouraged the establishment
of numerous tourist villages in Sleman. The volcanic ash produced
by the volcano has made the soil in surrounding areas fertile
enough for almost any plant to grow.

In addition, there is the beautiful scenery on the slopes of
the volcano as well as the mountain scenery all around. No less
interesting to tourists are the cultural and social peculiarities
of villages such as Turgo, Kaliadem and Kinahrejo -- all of which
are on the slopes of Mount Merapi.

It is unfortunate that not all of the tourist villages listed
by UGM's Center for Tourism are yet to be fully ready to receive
tourists.

Many of them, for example, do not yet have proper homestays
with adequate facilities.

In addition, human resources problems have also emerged. Many
of the villagers do not yet understand the concept of a tourist
village, much less how to market one.

There are also cases where management of a village does not
involve the whole community. In fact, it is essential that such a
business is managed by the whole community. Brayut is an example
of a tourist village that is managed without involving the whole
community. As a result, the project quickly collapsed.

"No tourists come to the village now. This is despite the fact
that many came right after it was officially opened as a tourist
village on August 14, 1999," head of Brayut village Sutarno said.

Apart from the obstacles that many of the tourist villages are
facing in developing agritourism, Sleman is still worth visiting
due to the existence of the tourist villages.

Therefore, it's no exaggeration to say that if Cambodia is
referred to as the country of a thousand pagodas, then Sleman may
be aptly termed the district of a thousand tourist villages.