Five Young Lecturers of IPB University Help Conceptualize Tourism in Belitung Island

Five lecturers from the Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA), IPB University presented potential biodiversity for tourism in Belitung Island in a Workshop and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Sustainable Tourism Management in Belitung Island, last July. They were Hirmas Fuady Putra, Kanthi Arum Widayati, Puji Rianti, Mafrikhul Muttaqin, and Jepri Agung Priyanto.

“The concept of sustainable tourism is very closely related to one of the ecology concepts in nature, namely carrying capacity. In addition, some tourism problems are indeed very close to biology. For example about how to manage long-tailed monkey conflict with visitors,” said Hirmas Fuady Putra as Team Leader.

According to him, the presence of young lecturers to Belitung Island was part of the monitoring activity held by the Center for the Sustainable Tourism Observatory of IPB University for Tanjung Kelayang Special Economic Zone, Belitung in cooperation with the Government of Belitung Regency. The aim was to provide solutions related to problems in nature caused by tourism activities.

This activity was attended by approximately 40 participants coming from travel agents, Belitung Geopark managers, local governments, education offices, and tourism stakeholders in Belitung Island. The CEO of Cloudmatika, Ted Hilbert, one of the cloud computing companies in Indonesia, also participated in this activity. On this occasion, Ted explained about digital tourism.

“I have already checked the websites of tourism actors in Belitung Island. Evidently, many things still need to be addressed,” said Ted. (**/Zul/zsp)