Community Service: Spatial Planning of Rindu Hati Tourism Village
Community Service Activities are one part of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education besides education and research. This activity is a concrete manifestation of the application of knowledge that can be carried out and applied by higher education institutions in various spaces and communities. The aim is to empower the community so that it strengthens the nation’s competitiveness and also further builds and strengthens the fields of education and research.
Management of the implementation of community service activities at the University of Bengkulu is coordinated by LPPM UNIB. One of the concrete forms carried out by LPPM UNIB to achieve the above goals is to form a guided village. One of the assisted villages of UNIB is Rindu Hati Village which is located in Taba Penanjung District, Central Bengkulu Regency, Bengkulu Province with a distance of about 33km from the center of Bengkulu City.
Currently, Rindu Hati Village is a popular tourist destination for the people of Bengkulu Province and its surroundings. This tourist destination began construction in August 2020 and was officially opened to the public in December 2020 and currently there are 11 types of tourism being offered. These attractions include: glamping River Rindu Hati tourism, waterfalls, camping ground, tubing, rock climbing, rice fields, Putri Lake, ship rocks, supit waterfalls, the burials of Tuanku Gagok and Raja Pembesar Alam, and the Minang mansion (Bengkulutoday. com, 2021). From the potential that Rindu Hati Village has, it is very suitable if Rindu Hati Village is used as a tourist spot with the concept of a tourist village. However, from initial observations that occur between the potential of natural resources and human resources, it is clear that the community is not optimizing the potential of existing resources. The tourism potential in Rindu Hati Village is very good and interesting, but the arrangement of the tourism concept and the spatial arrangement of the village as a tourism village has not been well organized and sustainable.
Based on the problems faced and the potential possessed by Rindu Hati Village, Benegkulu University through LPPM is making a real contribution as an effort to develop Rindu Hati Village into a tourist village through Science and Technology-based Community Service activities in 2021 with the title: “The Concept of Spatial Planning for Rindu Tourism Village Hati, Central Bengkulu Regency Using a Geographic Information System (GIS). This activity was carried out by a team of lecturers in the Mathematics Department of FMIPA which was chaired by Zulfia Memi Mayasari, M.Si with two team members namely Dr. Yulian Fauzi and Nur Afandi, M.Sc.
This activity was carried out in the form of a Group Discussion Forum (FGD) with the local Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis). The local Pokdarwis were invited to discuss how to compile, design and create the desired village spatial concept in accordance with the village’s future development plan. Through this activity, it is hoped that it can increase the awareness of the people of Rindu Hati Village to optimize the potential of existing resources, increase the active role of the local community in making decisions about forms of tourism that utilize village resources so that they are guaranteed to get a share of income from tourism activities in their village, increase the selling power of Rindu Hati Village as a tourist destination and encourage entrepreneurship for the people of Rindu Hati Village. Through this activity a product was also produced in the form of a Spatial Map of Rindu Hati Tourism Village.
