Revitalizing Village, from Poverty to Tourism-driven Prosperity

Semarang, VIVA – In Indonesia, the social welfare remains uneven with significant gap between urban and rural areas.

Many rural communities lack access to essential services and employment opportunities, which hinders their ability to improve liiving standards. 

These underserved areas often rely heavily on agriculture and face difficulties in transitioning to other sectors that could provide more sustainable income.

Because of that, a man who is born in Tanon village, Semarang Trisno tried to raise his birthplace from poverty.

At that time, he became the first young person in his village to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.

Most residents of Tanon Village worked as dairy farmers and crop growers, but Trisno chose to take a different path, focusing on transforming his village into a tourist destination.

Trisno’s breakthrough idea was to inspire residents to embrace tourism and convert their hamlet into a village tourism hub.

To build recognition, he branded Tanon Village as Dancing Village, encouraging people of all ages to escape poverty by showcasing traditional arts to visiting tourists.

The village now features cultural performances, including Topeng Ayu dance, Kuda Debog, Kuda Kiprah, and Warok Kreasi.

In just three years, this tourism initiative generated a revenue of IDR 250 million, not including individual income from product sales. This achievement led to Trisno being honored with the SATU Indonesia Awards in 2015 from Astra.

“Tanon Tourism Village can grow further with new activities, like designing dairy farm tourism,” he stated.

With more opportunities available in his village, Trisno hopes young people will no longer have to leave for work elsewhere. Instead, they can find meaningful employment within their own community.