REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION

ISSN: 2146-0353 ● © RIGEO ● 11(4), WINTER, 2021 www.rigeo.org Research Article Communication Management in Ecotourism Development in West of

Meria Octavianti1 Asep Suryana2 Department of Corporate Communication, Department of Corporate Communication, Universitas Padjadjaran Universitas Padjadjaran [email protected] [email protected]

Atwar Bajari3 Department of Corporate Communication, Universitas Padjadjaran [email protected]

Corresponding author: Department of Corporate Communication, Universitas Padjadjaran Email: [email protected]

Abstract Curug Malela is currently being developed into a leading tourist destination by the Provincial Government of . The concept of ecotourism becomes the basis of the development where it requires collaboration and communication of all stakeholders. Therefore, this study seeks to reveal parties involved in the management of Curug Malela and ways of communication management of the stakeholders so that the aims of the development of Curug Malela as an ecotourism can be achieved. This study employed qualitative method with case study approach. Observation and interview were the techniques of primary data collection and literature review became secondary data source to support this study. The results showed that there were three stakeholders involved in the development of Curug Malela as an ecotourism: key stakeholder comprising the Tourism and Culture Offices of West Java and West Bandung, primary stakeholder comprising local community and organizations including Youth Organization (Karang Taruna) and Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis), and secondary stakeholder comprising NGO, Perum Perhutani, and PTPN VIII Nusantara. Communication management of the stakeholders in the development of Curug Malela had been able to create and establish goodwill, mutual appreciation, tolerance and mutual understanding, as well as gain favorable opinion, either in the internal or external relationship.

Keywords Communication Management; Ecotourism; Curug Malela; Tourism Management

To cite this article: Octavianti, M.; Suryana, A.; and Bajari, A. (2021) Communication Management in Ecotourism Development in West Java of Indonesia. Review of International Geographical Education (RIGEO), 11(4), 1139-1145. doi: 10.48047/rigeo.11.04.108

Submitted: 02-03-2021 ● Revised: 03-04-2021 ● Accepted: 04-05-2021 © RIGEO ● Review of International Geographical Education 11(4), WINTER, 2021

Introduction

Tourism is a leading sector of Indonesia. This was declared by President during a Closed Meeting of Tourism Sector in on February 16, 2015, and was presented by the Head of Marketing of Area III (Taiwan), Dadang Djatnika, during the Guidance on Synchronizing Tourism Promotion Technology in the Asia Pacific and American Markets, which was held at Putri Gunung Hotel, Lembang on April 6, 2019.

“I declared that tourism is a leading sector. This is good news and all other ministries must support this. That's my decision.”

The decision to make tourism a leading sector of Indonesia since 2015 has gained a significant result, where it has been a cog in Indonesian economy. Based on data from parekraf.go.id on December 24, 2019, foreign exchange from tourism sector, particularly from foreign tourists, increases from year to year. It reaches USD6,297.99 million in 2009, and then increases to USD7,603.45 million in 2010, to USD8,554.39 million in 2011, to USD9,120.85 million in 2012, and to USD10,054.15 million in 2013. Indonesian tourism was ranked 47th in the world in 2017, where it was 100th in the previous year. In addition to contributing to foreign exchange earnings, the Indonesian tourism sector, which is represented by the Wonderful Indonesia branding in the last three years, has succeeded in winning international awards. This brings pride and certainly shows the quality of Indonesian tourism, which is already very competitive in global. Dadang Djatnika also presented that in 2016 the Wonderful Indonesia branding received 46 awards at various events in 22 countries. Although in 2017 there had been a decline in the achievement of international awards, which was only 27 awards in various events in 13 countries, in 2018 Wonderful Indonesia was able to rise again by receiving 66 awards in various events in 15 countries. Based on the development and achievement, the Ministry of Tourism challenged the Indonesian tourism sector to bringing in 20 million tourists by 2019. The data shows that since 2015 there has been a significant increase in foreign tourist visits to Indonesia, even though in 2018 the target was not achieved due to a number of natural disasters in Indonesia. The targets of 10 million foreign tourists in 2015, 12 million in 2016, 15 million in 2017 were achieved. However, the target of 17 million foreign tourists could not be achieved due to several natural disasters in Indonesia. It was only 15.8 million tourists who visited Indonesia in 2018. In spite of the decline in 2018, the Ministry of Tourism kept on targeting 20 million foreign tourists in 2019. This forced the Ministry of Tourism and other ministries/government agencies to keep on innovating in order to increase the number of foreign visitors. Massive promotion must be balanced with improvements to the infrastructure of the Tourist Destinations (DTW) by the central and local governments. In addition to the number of foreign tourists, Indonesian tourism also targeted that the macro performance should contribute 15% to the national GDP, and Rp280 trillion to foreign exchange, and 13 million labors to employment. It was also expected that micro performance can contribute to tourism competitiveness index by ranking 30th, to foreign visitors by 20 million, and to domestic travels by 275 million (Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia, 2015). These targets forced all components of tourism to make a synergy with each other. Portfolio optimization of tourism offers is crucial. Therefore, the Ministry of Tourism developed strategic portfolios as follows: DOT (Destination, Origin, and Time), BAS (Branding, Advertising, and Selling) and POS (Paid Media, Own Media, and social media). Destination relates to tourist destinations. It is a tourism product to market. Origin relates to the place of origin of the tourists. Time relates to certain times when tourists go on vacation. Branding relates an effort to enhance the image of tourist destinations. The development of tourist destinations (DTW) is one of the aspects that must be prioritized in order to attract tourists. But even though development is important, it has to conform to the regulations, local culture and wisdom, and environmental conservation. Ecotourism is a type of . It is a kind of natural tourism. Natural tourism, or nature- based, includes every type of mass tourism, adventure tourism, ecotourism that exploits natural resources, including species, habitats, landscapes, and marine and freshwater aquatic life. Nature tourism is a tour that aims to enjoy wild life or virgin natural destinations. Natural tourism includes a wide range of activities, from the relatively passive activities like enjoying the scenery and wildlife, to the risky physical activities like adventure tourism. Ecotourism demands an additional requirement of nature conservation. As stated by Goodwin (1997), ecotourism is natural tourism with a mild impact, which causes the preservation of species

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and their habitats directly by its role in conservation and/or indirectly by building perceptions in local communities in order to enable them to add values and earn income as well as to protect nature and wild life. The Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia (2009) states that there are five important elements of ecotourism: (1) providing experience and education to tourists, so as to increase understanding and appreciation of the tourist destinations they visit; (2) minimizing negative impacts on environmental and cultural characteristics of the destinations; (3) involving the community in its management and implementation; (4) providing economic benefits, particularly to local communities. therefore, ecotourism should be profit oriented; and (5) sustainable. Thus, ecotourism covers education, community empowerment, economic improvement, and conservation (Regional Ecotourism Development Guidelines, 2009) . These five important elements are in line with the statement of The Ecotourism Society (Wood, 2014) that there are at least eight fundamental principles in ecotourism development: (1) preventing and mitigating the impact of tourism on nature and culture; (2) adapting prevention and countermeasures to the nature and character of local nature and culture; (3) environmental conservation education; (4) educating tourists and local people on the importance of conservation; (5) direct income for the destination, managing ecotourism destinations to receive direct income from retribution. The retribution or consevation tax can be directly used for developing, conserving, and increasing the quality of environmental conservation; (6) community participation in planning, developing and monitoring ecotourism; (7) community income, tangible benefits will encourage the community to conserve the nature; (8) living in harmony with nature, all kinds of development, including facilities and utilities, must be in harmony and balanced with nature. Located in Rongga District, West Bandung Regency, West Java, Curug Malela or literally Malela Falls is a tourist destination which offers the charm of waterfalls like that of Niagara Falls in North America. It is a potential tourist destination that is gradually being developed into a leading tourist destination of West Java. The leading tourism program is a program of the West Java Provincial Government through the initiative of Governor Ridwan Kamil that the development of tourist destinations of West Java should be in accordance with their respective potentials. As reported by Kompas on December 14, 2018, Ridwan Kamil states that West Java tourism is like an unpolished gemstone. The West Java Provincial Government believes that they will be able to develop tourism without destroying nor sacrificing local wisdom in each destination (Asdhiana, 2018). In line with the provincial government, the management of Curug Malela should implement various elements and principles related to ecotourism. They can all be implemented if the communication of all stakeholders of Curug Malela in its development as an ecotourism of West Java is effective. The management must be able to collaborate with all stakeholders, particularly people who live around the destination and are directly involved in organizing the tourism destination, in order to communicate messages to increase tourists' understanding and appreciation of the principles of environmental conservation. If the management is able to manage communication with the people who live around the tourist destinations, it will be easier to implement the five elements of ecotourism. Thus, this research objective is to reveal the communication management of the stakeholders involved in the ecotourism development in West Java by taking a case of Curug Malela, a leading tourist destination. The communication management is examined from who the stakeholders of the development of tourist destinations are, what their roles are, and how communication management is conducted in order to achieve the objective of the development Curug Malela as an ecotourism.

Method

Qualitative research is a method used by a researcher to collect data through observation and interview, and then analyze the data in order to reveal a phenomenon, where in this case it is the communication management of the stakeholders involved in the development of Curug Malela as a leading tourist destination of West Java. Since the phenomenon is a natural object with natural setting, the qualitative method or so-called naturalistic method is an appropriate tool to answer the research questions. This is in line with Creswell (2015) who comprehensively defines qualitative research as follow:

“Qualitative research is a research to understand a phenomenon experienced by the subject of the research, including behavior, perception, motivation, action etc., holistically and to describe

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it in words in a language, on a natural, special context, and by using natural methods.”

The communication management of the stakeholders involved in the development of Curug Malela is a case that involves many stakeholders with different roles, and thereby an approach that can study the case deeper and more detailed is needed. According to Creswell (2015, p. 135), case study approach can accurately investigate an event, process, activity, program, or a group of individuals. Thus, case study is an appropriate approach for this study. In addition, the questions to answer in this study are those related to what, how, and why. Case study approach, according to Yin (2009, p. 33), puts more efforts to answer “how” and “why” questions, but in certain levels it can also answer “what” of the research. This is certainly appropriate for the object of this study. The primary data of this study were collected from direct observations and in-depth interviews with the key informants, i.e., the stakeholders involved in the development of Curug Malela. Therefore, the results are descriptive data of written and spoken words of the stakeholders and observable behavior. (Bogdan and Taylor in Moleong, 2017). Meanwhile, the secondary data were collected from literature review on relevant literatures. The primary and secondary data were then analyzed through the stages of analysis of Miles and Huberman as follows: (1) Data Reduction, where field data are summarized and filtered for their significances, themes or patterns; (2) Data Display, where the researcher makes a brief naration about the topic of the research; and finally (3) Conclussion Drawing/verification, where the researcher draws a conclusion and verifies the analyzed data (Sugiyono, 2016). Preliminary conclusion of the study is provisonal. Therefore, data validity test is required to strengthen the conclusion. The authors used triangulation for testing data validity. According to William, triangulation can be conducted by checking data in many ways and at certain time, and thus it can be categorized into the followings: source triangulation, technique of data collecting, and time (Sugiyono, 2016). In this study, the researchers used source triangulation for validating data in order to improve their understanding of the collected data so that they would get a more consistent, complete, definite data.

Result and Discussion

Curug Malela as an ecotourism of West Java

As a tourist destination, Curug Malela has to provide a great experience for its visitors. When they are in a tourist destiantion, they have to see a good, memorable attraction. The waterfalls look like Niagara since they are about 70 m wide and 60 m high, and thus they have a good attraction. Without having to go to North America, tourists can see and feel the sensation of the mini-Niagara. In addition to seeing the scenery, visitors should be enabled to do other activities and buy something in a tourist destination. In Curug Malela, visitors can have fun with water activities and feel the breeze of the gigantic waterfalls. Unfortunately, as of the time of researching, visitors could not buy any unique souvenirs to take home. As stated by Yoeti (1996), a place can be a good tourist destination that attracts visitors if it meets 3 (three) criteria: something to see, something to do, something to buy. Curug Malela has only met two aspects: something to see and to do. As a tourist destination being transformed into an ecotourism, a proper management is required to make the development in accordance with the planning. Communication management is required to improve the environmental awareness of the stakeholders of the ecotourism and to develop Curug Malela based on the perspective of ecotourism: (1) ecotourism as a product, i.e., all-natural attractions; (2) ecotourism as a market, i.e., leading the tourism to environmental conservation; and (3) ecotourism as a development approach, i.e., eco-friendly exploitation of ecotourism resources. Based on these perpectives, the communication management in the development of Curug Malela is crucial to do. As a tourist destination being transformed into an ecotourism, Curug Malela will not be a tourist destination with crowded visitors and big profit, but rather with other values uniquely to ecotourism. Ecotourism does not only aim to attract a big number of visitors and gain high profit. It can be said that the development of ecotourism is far from earning financial benefits, but for nature conservation, empowering local communities from social, cultural and economic aspects. Thus, aspect of economy is not the primary goal of ecotourism. It is only a collateral of ecotourism development. By economy, it means income for local people who live around the place of ecotourism.

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To achieve the difficult goals, every management of ecotourism destinations should be able to manage the communication of their stakeholders in order to keep the principles of environmental conservation, community empowerment, and education on the right track. Sumarto (2009) argues that a stakeholder is an individual, group or organization that is interested in, involved in, or affected (either positively or negatively) by the activities or programs of development, in this case the development of Curug malela. Every stakeholder has a different role that should be understood in such a way, so that the development of tourist objects and attractions in an area can be well-realized through various efforts. An effective communication is one of them. Ecotourism management, from policies to the technical implementations, must be well communicated with all stakeholders. The principles of communication management are crucial to implement in tourism communication. Communication management in tourism communication can be studied by revealing the ways to manage tourism marketing, destinations, accesses, human resources and institutions, the roles of leaders and leadership, budgets, and communication tools and machines (Bungin, 2015). The role of a leader is crucial in communication management in the development of ecotourism. Clear assignment and effective communication are crucial to avoid coflict of interest.

Staholders in the management of Curug Malela

Stakeholder involvement in each tourist destination is different, depending on the rules of the owner or the highest authority of the tourist destination. Each stakeholder has their own roles and positions in the management of ecotourism, where each role colors the quality of the management and the existence of the tourist destination. Curug Malela is directly managed by the Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung, which is the extension of the Tourism and Culture of West Java. The development of Curug Malela is fully funded by the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) but the land of the ecotourism is owned by the village administration, Indonesia State owned Forest Enterprise (Perhutani), and some individuals. Therefore, even though the highest authority is held by the government, they have to cooperate with the owners of the land to manage the ecotourism. The Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung is a stakeholder who directly manages the ecotourism of Curug Malela. They manage all programs and plan the development of the ecotourism. In order to realize a good management, the Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung has been collaborating with the owners of the land around the tourist destination. All stakeholders in the management interact and coordinate with each other, particularly in terms of planning and implementing the development of the tourist destination. To establish a professional cooperation, the Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung and Perum Perhutani of South Bandung KPH have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Work Agreement (PKS) in order to develop Curug Malela. In addition to Perum Perhutani, the Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung also cooperate with Indonesian State-Owned Plantation Company VIII (PTPN VIII Nusantara). The cooperation is established to reach out the area of Curug Malela, since the visitors have to passed through a road and tea plantation owned PTPN VIII Nusantara. As a management company of tea industry, PTPN VIII Nusantara can provide attractions for the visitors of Curug Malela. Along the main road to the falls, they can see another attraction, i.e., some tea-pickers picking tea in a certain area of the plantation. This surely presents another village charm to the visitors. Other stakeholders involved in the ecotourism of Curug Malela are community representatives in Kelompok Sadar Wisata ‘Tourism Awareness Group’ (Pokdarwis) and Karang Taruna (Youth Organization). They are tasks executors of ecotourism development of Curug Malela. Some become field officers, parking attendants, motorcycle taxis drivers and stall keepers who sell typical cullinary to the visitors. According to Crosby (1992), stakeholder is classified into the followings: (1) prime stakeholder, i.e. those who are affected by an activity positively or negatively (beyond willingness); (2) secondary stakeholder, i.e. those who intermediate the implementation of an activity. They can be classified into funders, executors, supervisors, and advocacy organizations like NGOs, government organization and private parties; (3) key stakeholder, i.e., those with a strong, important influence on the problems, needs and concerns to the continuity of the implementation. Stakeholders also play an important role in policy making. Hence, the classification of stakeholders involved in the ecotourism development of Curug Malela can be shown in Table 1.

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Table 1. Classification of Stakeholders in the Development of Curug Malela No Classification Stakeholder 1 Primary Stakeholder  Local People of Desa Cicadas Kecamatan Rongga  Organization: Karang Taruna, Pokdarwis 2 Secondary Stakeholder  LSM Trapawana  Perum Perhutani  PTPN VIII Nusantara 3 Key Stakeholder  West Java Provincial Government  Dinas Pariwisata dan Kebudayaan Kabupaten Bandung Barat  Pemerintah Desa Kecamatan Rongga Source: Results of the Study (2019)

Communication Management in the Development of Curug Malela

From the point of view communication management, the Tourism and Culture Office play a role in the decision taking and policy making about Curug Malela, whereas other stakeholders are parts of communication participants. As the purpose of communication management, the management of Curug Malela is aimed at achieving the objectives. The goals of communication management of the stakeholders in the development of Curug Malela are: (1) to build a good relationship; (2) good will; (3) mutual appreciation; (4) tolerance; (5) mutual understanding; (6) favorable opinion, either in internal or external relationship. If the communication management runs well between the stakeholders, automatically a good relationship will be established in the development of Curug Malela. When the Tourism and Culture Office or the government can well- communicate all information and development plans, a good relationship between local communities, other stakeholders and the government will be established. One will not distrust and blame the others when there is a misunderstanding. The good relationship will not fall apart even though one or two parties involves in a conflict. At the very least, the good relationship will make all means in conclict resolution deemed efforts to improve the quality of the tourist object. Goodwill will encourage an individual to involve directly. This will be useful for the development of Curug Malela, based on facts of this study, The Tourism and Culture Office stated that local people were not responsive and less active. This can be improved if the Office can manage their communication by accomodating community needs, what they want. This persuasion will call people’s goodwill. An informant of NGO stated that people would voluntarily participate in the management, or at least in the development of Curug Malela. This can only be realized if the government, as the highest authority in policy and regulation making in the development of Curug Malela, can deliver information clearly and accurately to the people, and thereby the messages will be responded well. In this context, the credibility of the spokesman is crucial in information dissemination from the Office to the community. The good communication management of the stakeholders can grow mutual appreciation. It is proof that a good relationship between all parties will lead to a fair understanding, and every decision, innovation, idea, and input will be accepted and appreciated as an effort to develop Curug Malela. As in the case of mutual appreciation, tolerance will also emerge from a good relationship and voluntary participation. Tolerance means admitting diverse understanding and views of the development and tourism strategy in the management of Curug Malela. This will be considered a form of diversity and comprehensiveness of the cooperation. Tolerance will take place if the government, in this case the Tourism and Culture Office, can build a sense of comfort in the communication. Information of message management in the development of Curug Malela requires a proper strategy, since the communicator will face a transitioning community, where they are still friendly, a typical characteristic of village people, but have a growing mindset. Everything becomes commercial. Therefore, the communicator should be able to make use of this typical characteristic for the development. If it’s realized, a personal persuasion is sufficed for encouraging people to participate and cooperate with the government. As a result, mutual benefit will be established. A good information dissemination can encourage a supportive condition, where each stakeholder will mutually support all innovations and ideas for the development of the tourist object. In addition, through a good communication management, favorable opinions will not only come up from the internal relationship, but also from external

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between the management and the private or the visitors. Conclusion The development of Curug Malela into a leading ecotourism of West Java requires a collaboration and synergy of different stakeholders with different roles. Stakeholders in the development of Curug Malela comprise key stakeholder, i.e., the Tourism and Culture Offices of West Java and West Bandung, primary stakeholder, i.e., local community and organizations like Karang Taruna dan Pokdarwis, and secondary stakeholder, i.e., NGO, Perum Perhutani, and PTPN VIII Nusantara. Communication management of all stakeholders in the development of Curug Malela has been able to create and establish goodwill, mutual appreciation, tolerance and mutual understanding, as well as favorable opinion, either in internal or external relationship. The management of Curug Malela as a leading tourist destination still has to be improved. Currently, the visitors only get something to see and to do in Curug Malela. Something to buy has not been implemented in Curug Malela. A cooperation and collaboration with local community of creative economy to together provide facilities for selling local quality souvenirs. Limitation and Further Study This study is far from perfect, where these writers has not broken down the elements of communication management in details. These writers have only examined it from a point of view, i.e., communicator where in this case it is all stakeholders in the development of Curug Malela as an ecotourism. Therefore, it will be best to deeply examine other elements like message, media, and impact of the communication management. In addition, this study has not found a model of communication management in the development of Curug Malela. Acknowledgements This paper is the outcome of the lecturer's dissertation research (RDDU) that these writers are currently doing. Therefore, these writers would like to thank Universitas Padjadjaran for funding this study and research. In addition, these researchers also want to express their gratitude to the Tourism and Culture Office of West Bandung for facilitating them in data collection. References Asdhiana, I. M. (2018). Ridwan Kamil Jadikan Jabar Sebagai Provinsi Pariwisata. Kompas.Com. https://travel.kompas.com/read/2018/12/14/082000027/ridwan-kamil-jadikan-jabar- sebagai-provinsi-pariwisata Burhan Bungin. (2015). Komunikasi Pariwisata (Tourism communication): Pemasaran dan Brand Destinasi. Prenadamedia Group. Cresswell, J. W. (2015). Research Design: Pendekatan Kualitatif, Kuantitatif, dan Mixed. Cetakan Ke-3. Terjemahan Achmad Fawaid. Pustaka Pelajar. Creswell, J. W. (2015). Penelitian Kualitatif & Desain Research Memilih di Antara Lima Pendekatan. In alih bahasa, Ahmad Lintang Lazuardi. Crosby, B. L. (1992). Stakeholder Analysis: A Vital Tool for Strategic Managers. USAID. Goodwin, H. (1997). Ecotourism, in Monk, K.A., Y. de Fretes, and G.Reksodiharjo-Lilley. Periplus Editions. Regional Ecotourism Development Guidelines, (2009). Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia. (2015). Perancangan Pasar Wisata Umum Pariwisata Nusantara. Moleong, L. J. (2017). Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif (Edisi Revisi). In PT. Remaja Rosda Karya. Sugiyono. (2016). Memahami Penelitian Kualitatif. Bandung: Alfabeta. Sumarto, H. S. (2009). Inovasi, Partisipasi dan Good Governance : 20 Prakarsa Inovatif dan Partisipatif Di Indonesia. Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia. Wood, M. E. (2014). The Ecotourism Society’-an International NGO Commited to Sustainable Development. Tourism Recreation Research, 24(2), 119–123. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.1999.11014889 Yin, R. K. (2009). Case Study Research Design and Methods Fourth Edition. In Applied Social Research Methods Seiries. Yoeti, O. (1996). Pengantar Ilmu Pariwisata. Angkasa.

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