Community Participation through Tourism Awareness Groups in the Development of Tourism Village Potential in Sendang Village, Wonogiri District, Wonogiri Regency

Abstract

Before the tourism development program managed by Pokdarwis, the potential in Sendang Village had not yet developed. The existence of tourist attractions in the village is not widely known to the public, the awareness of the surrounding community about the benefits of tourism management is still low. The purpose of the study is to (1) describe community participation through the role of Pokdarwis in the development of tourism village potential in Sendang Village, (2) describe the implementation of Pokdarwis in Sendang Village, (3) describe pokdarwis obstacles in developing the potential of tourism villages in Sendang Village. The method in this study is a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques are used interview, documentation and obervation techniques through social media such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube owned by Sendang Village due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The validity of the data uses triangulation of sources and methods. The findings of community participation through the role of Pokdarwis in the development of tourism village potential, namely: (1) community participation in the development of tourism village potential through the role of Pokdarwis as a motivator, communicator, and facilitator are shown through direct mentoring and forming discussion forums with community members. (2) the implementation of Pokdarwis by holding regular meetings every three months with community members for decision making to evaluation aimed at the progress of the program. (3) the internal obstacle of Pokdarwis is the difficulty of time sharing carried out by Pokdarwis. The external obstacles are inconsistency in the income of funds and the development of tourism village potential is not optimal, not all people in Sendang Village have the same awareness to participate and lack of information sources for tourism villages.