Tembuku is one of the villages being quite successful in exploring and managing the potential of natural tourism. One of them is Tukad Cepung waterfall. From the effort to manage the natural tourism potential, Tembuku village is able to generate hundreds of millions of income per month.
Headman of Tembuku, Ketut Mudiarsa, revealed that Tukad Cepung waterfall has been a tourist destination and always crowded with tourists. Daily average of visit reaches 300 people. On a holiday, the visit can reach thousands of people. “The visit is dominated by foreign tourists. Tukad Cepung waterfall is ranked third in tourism objects with the highest number of foreign tourist visits,” he said.
He said that before becoming an attractive tourist destination, formerly the Tukad Cepung waterfall was only a hidden river (tukad) whose condition was unregulated. Since there was direction of the government to explore respective village potential, he then tried to move and explore the tourism potential owned by local village.
“We see the potential of Tukad Cepung as a tourist spot. Moreover, it has a spiritual place,” he said. Departing from such condition, he tried to arrange it with young people from local village. At the beginning of the arrangement, young people of Tembuku introduced it through social media. Unexpectedly, in the long run the visit to Tukad Cepung waterfall continues to increase.
Seeing the potential, the village then cooperated with the local customary village and agreed to seriously manage the waterfall. Incoming visitors are subject to a levy of IDR 15,000 per person. The management is also carried out professionally through the local village-owned enterprises (BUMDes).
Mudiarsa revealed that since it was managed in the past four months, the gross income generated by the Tukad Cepung waterfall is fairly good, reaching IDR 700 million. Each month, the average income earned amounts to IDR 110 million- IDR 120 million. “This income does not entirely go to the village, but is divided into some portions, allocated for customary village and maintenance of facilities. So, they have owned their allocation,” he said.
Considering the potential of Tukad Cepung waterfall is quite extraordinary to gain income, the customary village will make cooperation with administrative village. He said the price of admission ticket to the Tukad Cepung waterfall will be increased. Certainly, it will be accompanied with the improvement in facilities, such as parking lot, the addition of gazebos and others. He revealed that so far the thing remaining to get complaint from tourists is the condition of the road to the local dam. The village cannot make improvement to the trail because the authority lies in the provincial government.
“Together with the subdistrict head, I had requested it can be granted to district government and then the district grants it to village so that it could be repaired. Until now, there has been no follow up. We from the village government will not be able to repair it, even though tourists have frequently complain about it,” he added.
Source&image: Bali Travel News
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