Strategies for Managing Objects and Natural
Attractions in Semongkat Natural Tourism Park,
Batulanteh District, Sumbawa Regency
Rusli Duby, Endah Wahyuningsih, Hairil Anwar 824
tourism is a form of natural tourism activity that utilizes the potential of the environment
and natural resource management. According to (Damanik & Weber, 2006) nature
tourism uses an environmental planning approach. The emphasis of this approach is on
preserving the environment but taking into account the needs of visitors to the facility and
the need to carry out their activities.
Tourism potential is everything that is found in a tourist destination, and is an
attraction so that people want to come and visit the place. The potential of the Semongkat
Natural Park area is a fairly high plant potential, especially species from the Mrytaceae,
Burceraceae and Moraceae tribes, including Tempoak (Eugenia denisflora), Ketimis
(Protium javanicum), Kesambi (Schleichera oleosa), Bewe family (Drypetes). langiflora),
Kukin (Schoutenia ovata), Pulai (Alstonia Schoris), red fig (Ficus sp.) and many
medicinal plants such as Cat's Whiskers.
In addition to its flora potential, Semongkat Nature Tourism Park also has tourism
potential. The existence of a river that passes through the Semongkat Nature Park area
makes many visitors bathe in the river because the water is cool and clean, besides that
this area has river tourism potential. The location of the Semongkat Nature Tourism Park
which is in the hills gives this area a very beautiful natural panorama, so the potential for
jungle tracking activities to be developed in Semongkat Nature Tourism Park.
As for the problems that exist in the Semongkat Nature Tourism Park at this time,
the number of facilities that are not arranged so that it looks untidy, apart from not being
neatly arranged, the available facilities are still lacking, such as trash bins, photo spots
and berugaks. In Semongkat Nature Tourism Park, there is still a lot of garbage scattered
about, this is because the distance between the berugak and the placement of the garbage
bin is not strategic enough so that people often leave their trash around the berugak. This
is also caused by the lack of facilities provided by the management of the Semongkat
Nature Park (Tazkia & Hayati, 2012).
If the potential of the Semongkat Nature Park is developed, it can increase national
income and regional income to improve the welfare and prosperity of the community. In
addition, it can also expand and equalize business opportunities for the community, and
can create jobs that can absorb labor so as to reduce the number of unemployed.
According to Law no. 10 of 2009 concerning Tourism Article 1 paragraph 5, Tourism
Objects or so-called Tourist Attractions are everything that has uniqueness, beauty, and
value in the form of diversity of natural wealth, culture, and man-made products that are
the target or destination of tourist visits.
(Fadhlulloh, 2014) explains that tourist attraction is the main focus of driving
tourism in a destination. Spillane (1987, in Taskia and Hayati, 2012) suggests that there
are five elements of tourist attraction in the tourism industry that are very important,
namely: Attractions (attractions/attractions), Facilities (necessary facilities), Infrastructure
(infrastructure), Transportations (transportation). Hospitality (hospitality). Tourist
attraction contributes in influencing travel satisfaction so that it can increase the number
of tourist visits (Hermawan, 2017). According to (Basiya & Rozak, 2012), the
attractiveness of tourist destinations is the main motivation for visitors to make tourist
visits.
Based on the above problems, there are management strategies that can be applied
to increase visitor comfort, namely by adding existing facilities such as berugaks, trash
bins and photo spots. Because the existing facilities do not match the number of visitors,
especially on holidays. In addition, there is a lack of marketing or promotional strategies
to increase visitors. In introducing new tourism and to find out how to attract tourists to
visit, there must be a strategy from the manager to introduce and retain potential tourists
(Kirom, Sudarmiatin, & Putra, 2016). Therefore, innovative strategies are needed such as