Preparation of the Gubung Serut Area to be an Educational Nature Tourism Destination

This service aims to provide assistance to the community in the Gubung Serut area to prepare educational natural tourist destinations. Mentoring involves partners from PT. Astra International Tbk., Honda Central Java region. Community empowerment applies a participatory method through the stages of community empowerment through the stages of preparation, implementation, and evaluation. Preparation is carried out through the stages of establishing partnerships to build a shared commitment to developing empowerment programs in target locations. The empowerment program is prepared jointly between the service team, village officials


INTRODUCTION
Gubug Serut is one of the natural tourist destinations located in Kampung Persen, Semarang City, which is managed by Karangtaruna Desa Persen. This natural tourist location is only known to be limited around Sekaran Village. Discussions that have been carried out with these tourism managers reveal that the main problems faced are the managers' weak commitment, the region's potential and problems that have not been mapped, and the tourism awareness groups or institutions that have not been formed (Pantea, 2013;Puspaningrum & Agustina, 2014). Another problem is that the vision, mission, work plan, and tourism management regulations have not been formulated. So far, there has been no attempt to conduct consultations and increase human resources capacity. There has been no effort to reorganize the face of the village by providing public facilities (accommodation), no uniqueness and branding (identity) of tourist villages, no effort to arrange tour packages, and no marketing and partnership efforts. A joint commitment is needed in developing community-based tourism villages (Dolezal & Novelli, 2022;Syafi'i & Suwandono, 2015). Problem identification and needs analysis found that there was no joint commitment from managers in developing tourist villages, regional potentials and problems had not been mapped, facilities had not been regulated, and institutional strengthening or tourism awareness groups had not been mapped (Ismail et al., 2021;Rodiyah et al., 2018). The needs analysis that has been found is that efforts are needed to strengthen joint commitment between stakeholders in Persen Village and introduce efforts to map potentials and problems referring to the TOWS (Threat, Opportunity, Weakness, Strength) analysis to build awareness of stakeholders to form tourism awareness groups. The tourism management community needs assistance to develop a vision, mission, work plan, and regulations as a tourist village (Perwirawati et al., 2022;Rahu, 2021). Assistance is needed to increase tourism village managers' capacity and structure the village's face (Gao & Wu, 2017;Thetsane, 2019). Managers need assistance to find uniqueness and branding through the ALUI formula (Original, Rare, Unique, and Beautiful) and facilitate promotion by cooperating with partners.
The potential of Gubuk Serut as a superior tourist village has the power of beautiful natural scenery. Rural nature, which has a river flow with rocks and clear water, adds to the attractiveness of this village location (Rangel-Buitrago et al., 2013;Suryani et al., 2020). The discussions with village officials revealed a strong desire to empower rural communities as a tourist village. The commitment of the village apparatus has been followed up in the form of a long-term village plan that includes the provision of facilities and a budget to develop the Gubuk Serut tourist attraction. The development of tourist villages requires a strong commitment from the community (Gautama et al., 2020;Mayunita et al., 2020;Setiawan, 2015). The village government hopes there will be assistance from partners, in this case, universities and private partners, to prepare attractive tourist destinations jointly. The community's commitment is strong, but due to limited knowledge about tourism management, the various existing tourism objects have not been optimized (Dickinson et al., 2014;Wijayanti & Damanik, 2019). Partnerships with various parties effectively empower the community (Muna et al., 2020;Surahman & Nayla, 2022).
The preparation of the Gubung Serut area to become an educational natural tourism destination that has an attraction for tourists requires cooperation with various partners. The tourist location, which is close to the Universitas Negeri Semarang campus and even located in the same village, can potentially involve the campus in developing this tourist attraction. Universities can develop various types of educational attractions needed in this tourist location. The resources owned by universities can continuously train the community to have superior educational tourism management skills. In addition, thousands of students are also potential visitors to visit Gubung Serut. The development of tourist areas is open to partners from the private sector, especially in developing complete and attractive destination facilities (Lee et al., 2010). The involvement of various partners is expected to accelerate the preparation of tourist areas (Fitrianto et al., 2020;Utama & Junaedi, 2019;Yanti & Chasanah, 2022). The involvement of integrated strategic partners in preparing the Gubung Serut area to become an educative nature tourism destination requires strengthening management resources. The integrated tourism area development strategy is carried out according to Figure 1.

Figure 1. Educational Tourism Area Development Strategy
This service aims to provide assistance to the community in the Gubung Serut area to prepare educational natural tourism destinations. Mentoring involves partners from PT. Astra International Tbk., Honda Central Java region. The service team and partners assist tourism managers by preparing tourist destinations by structuring huts and making huts of various shapes along the river banks. Further assistance is carried out on human resources managing the Gubug Serut tourist area.

METHODS
The community empowerment method is referred to (Edi, 2009). The stages of community empowerment are the stages of preparation, implementation, and evaluation. Preparation is carried out through the stages of establishing partnerships to build a shared commitment to developing empowerment programs in target locations. The empowerment program is prepared jointly between the service team, village officials, and target community leaders. Community support is strong because the programs developed are jointly prepared by universities and partners from PT. Astra International Tbk., Honda Central Java region, village officials, and community leaders. The implementation of the empowerment program begins with building tourist destinations through structuring areas of educational value. A suitable destination for students from schools and students from universities to visit. Data during the empowerment process and activity achievements were collected through interviews and observations. The activity was continued through limited discussions between the service team, partner representatives, village officials, and tourism village managers. The target of the interview is the tourism village manager to express opinions during the empowerment process. Interviews reveal the opinion of tourism managers about knowledge gained during empowerment activities and benefits obtained in setting up educational tourism areas. The results of the interviews were explored through observations of the arrangement of Gubung Serut to reveal the opinions of managers and visitors. Observations are supported by documents obtained to compare before and after empowerment. Analysis before and after empowerment includes tourist destination facilities, tourist attractions, and the advantages of educational tourism. The facilities confirmed to managers and visitors include huts, food stalls, and community product galleries as souvenirs for visitors. Tourist attractions include welcoming visitors, outbound, and entertainment at tourist sites. Visitors ask about the advantages of educational tourism about various attractions of educational value. The primary role of the service partners of PT. Astra International Tbk., Honda Central Java region helps marketing through gathering activities. The management partner held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to build a joint commitment with Persen Village stakeholders in developing tourist areas. The follow-up to the FGD was online training using information technology for marketing Gubung Serut tourism. Marketing begins with creating interesting digital content about various educational tourism attractions. Training has an essential role in providing education to tourism managers. The program's sustainability that has been trained is an essential part of a series of community empowerment activities in Gubung Serut. The form of program sustainability is compiled as a roadmap for developing an educational tourism village, according to Figure 2.

Figure 2. Roadmap for the Empowerment of Gubung Serut Tourism Managers
The activity method is designed to continue within three years so that the manager and the community of the Gubung Serut Tourism area have an educative tourism area with professional management to impact the community's economy. New partners are involved in impacting this tourist area's dissemination more broadly, not only nationally but targeting international tourists.

Results
The training on natural tourism management for education has been carried out. The target of the training is the Gubung Serut tourism manager. The training was attended by all managers involving village officials and partners. The manager's initial knowledge of educative nature areas is still very limited because it is limited to targeting visitors from school children around the city of Semarang. The training material starts from the mental readiness of the community to become managers, the culture of serving visitors, preparing tourist destinations, preparing attractions, culinary and souvenirs for visitors. The trainees firmly commit to participating in all training sessions because there has been a shared awareness to make Gubung Serut an attractive tourist area. After the training, there are regular formal and informal discussions with managers. Discussion activities carried out directly at the location of the tourist area have a tangible impact on the preparation of the tourist area. Online training utilizing information technology for marketing Gubung Serut tourism is carried out for managers specifically who have a role in publicizing this tourist area. After the training and discussions, the stages of structuring natural tourism areas had educational value. Building educational natural tourism destinations starts with developing huts specifically designed to have educational value. Various facilities were built, as shown in Figure 3.   The service that has been done has had a real impact in preparing human resources and natural resources for Gubung Serut Tourism. The target has been achieved according to the roadmap for developing this tourist area in 2022. Building huts has been carried out strategically along rivers, hills, and culinary and souvenir locations. Gubung with natural materials from bamboo with thatched roofs gives an impression to visitors about the use of natural materials. The arrangement of the natural area of Gubung Serut has been carried out by making culinary tourism destinations typical of the village and souvenirs of community products. The empowerment that has been carried out for the community in the Gubung Serut tourist area has had a tangible impact on the development of the tourist area. The community's response after the empowerment process carried out by the service team with partners was obtained through interviews. The interview revealed the opinion of the tour manager about the knowledge gained during the activity and the benefits obtained in setting up an educational tourism area. The results of the interviews are in Table 1.

Questions
Respondents' Answers What knowledge has been gained after participating in the training activities?
Organizing the tourist area environment by preparing plans to build huts, stalls, and parking lots, making tourist attractions, and becoming an innovative tourism manager. What benefits have been felt after participating in the preparation of the Gubung Serut tourist area?
Aware of the importance of preparing an attractive tourist area. Gain knowledge about educational tourist destinations and attractions. What changes have occurred before and after the service activities that have been carried out?
Changes in awareness of the importance of preparing culinary delights that attract visitors, preparing souvenirs made by the community. Changes to physical facilities include huts built along rivers and hills.
The following interview target is visitors to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the Gubung Serut Tourism area. The results of interviews with visitors are shown in Table 2.

Questions
Respondents' Answers Why are you interested in visiting the Gubung Serut Tourism area?
The natural scenery is still natural, beautiful, and attractive. Typical culinary community and there are educational tourist attractions that educate. What facilities do you find interesting?
Gubung was built along the river, the hills, and the culinary area. Did you get educational tourist attractions in Gubung Serut?
Yes, we did. For example, preserving nature, processing traditional foods, arts, and outbound games. What still needs to be developed in the Gubung Serut Tourism area?
The area of tourism that needs to be expanded is tourist attractions in the form of processing typical village food, art music, and dance art typical of the village. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Gubung Serut Tourism area?
The weakness is that the road to tourist sites is still narrow. The main advantage is the beauty of the natural panorama.
Visitors to the Gubung Serut area, especially those from Semarang, have started to appear. The number of visitors is still small because it is a tourist area that is still in the process of being developed. Analysis of the number of visitors is shown in Figure 5. The average number of weekly visitors is above 100 visitors. The number of visitors has increased every Saturday and Sunday. The observations showed that the visitors were from teenagers to adults, most of whom were students. There are still few visitors among school students, and family visitors are also few.

Discussion
The service activity begins with providing training to provide knowledge and skills for managers of the Gubung Serut tourist area. The preparation of human resources for managing the Gubung Serut tourist area in service activities has been carried out through training and FGDs. Both types of activities apply a participatory approach. The participants of the activity are tourism managers who come from the community around Gubung Serut. The activity's target is to build awareness about optimizing the role of a professional tourist area manager. Participants were asked to express their desires, hopes, and initial skills in managing educational tourism. Training for tourism area managers in a participatory manner builds participants' confidence in preparing attractive tourist areas (Brahmanto et al., 2018;Wijayanti et al., 2020). The training was followed up with non-formal FGDs through limited discussions to prepare tourist destinations and attractions that were developed from the potential of the community. Discussions are not only carried out in the room but at the tourist location directly. Managers enjoy more direct discussions at tourist sites because they can interact with visitors.
Procurement of educational tourist destination facilities is the target of community service with partners from PT. Astra International Tbk., Honda Central Java region. A tourist destination is an attraction for natural and beautiful natural panoramas. Visitors admit that the Gubung Serut tourist attraction has an exciting nature. Supporting facilities are built so that visitors can enjoy the beauty of nature. Gubung along the river has become an attraction because it is not found in many other tourist sites. The name Gubung Serut is more straightforward for the public to recognize as visitors from the word "Gubug". Gubung destinations built along rivers, hills, and culinary locations reinforce the characteristics of this tourist area. Tourist area destinations that maintain natural environmental conditions are image an environmentally friendly area (Devy & Soemanto, 2017;Salambue et al., 2020). The commitment of the management of the Gubung Serut tourist area is to maintain natural conditions reinforced by facilities that have educational value. Educational nature tourism developed through tourist destinations that blend with nature, are environmentally friendly and give the feel of being one with nature. The developed tourist attractions consider the educational value, for example, outbound training attractions that contain various educational game packages. Outbound games to recognize self-ability, build cohesiveness and explore nature provide an educational impression for visitors from school-age children to university students and even the general public. Traditional food processing has become a tourist attraction with educational value. Visitors can even see the hands-on practice of processing traditional foods typical of the local community. Tourist attractions that involve visitors give the impression of a friendly and pleasant tourist area (Suryani et al., 2021). Gubung Serut is prepared to become an educational tourism area so that the manager and partners develop gradually to maintain educational values.
Gubung Serut tourist visitors have increased every Saturday and Sunday. The number of visitors every week is more than 100 people. Analysis of interviews with visitors revealed that unspoiled natural scenery is the most attractive attraction. The manager in developing this tourist area maintains natural conditions so that it does not change the ground surface condition. Culinary is a unique attraction because, in addition to traditional foods, the location is strengthened to enjoy food in a hut with a beautiful natural atmosphere. Traditional cuisine and a peaceful atmosphere are the main attraction for tourists to visit the tourist area of Gubung Serut. Visitor responses are essential information in developing tourist areas (Wibowo et al., 2022). Gubung Serut still needs development, starting from the area of tourism that needs to be expanded tourist attractions in the form of processing village specialties that need to be added. The advantages of the services provided by the manager are mainly in the friendly attitude towards visitors. Each visitor is accompanied by a tour guide who is able to explain all the existing attractions. There is still a slight weakness in services on physical facilities, particularly limited bathrooms or toilets. These service activities include providing training for managers on how to serve visitors. The increase in the number of visitors every week with a wider distribution of visitors is the impact of the services provided by the manager.

CONCLUSION
Preparing the Gubung Serut tourist area to become an educative natural tourism destination is carried out through preparing management resources, building destinations, and preparing educational tourist attractions. The preparation of management resources is carried out through training and ongoing discussions with partners. Tourist destinations are built while maintaining natural conditions, the highest attraction for visitors. The prepared tourist attractions consider the educational value as the identity of educative tourism. Suggestions for developing the Gubung Serut tourist area need a broader partnership. The culinary and artistic potential still needs to involve partners more broadly to increase the diversity of tourist attractions that attract visitors.