The dream of having a professor as a tour guide is soon to become a reality in Yogyakarta as Gadah Mada University's (UGM) Center for Tourism Studies is set to introduce "knowledge-based tourism".
The initial step was taken on Tuesday when the center officially launched a one-day tour guide training course for university professors and scientists from various backgrounds.
"They are not just ordinary interpreters whose fee is Rp 15,000 (US$1.3) per hour but tour guide professors with a service rate of Rp 1.5 million a day," head of the center, Chafid Fandeli, said.
Dozens of professors and scientists from the university's schools participated in Tuesday's training course.
Jamianto Damanik, program developer of the center, said the training was mainly focused on how to present related materials to tourists in attractive ways both while in both indoor and outdoor settings - the heat of central Java can zap the attention span of visitors.
A tour guide who is a bioanthropologist, for example, has to have the capability to explain to tourists interested in knowing more about Javanese people in a condensed yet thorough way, without loosing their attention.
"We have plenty of findings regarding Javanese people, many of which are unknown to the public," Jamianto said.
However, he said, to prevent a tour from being dull, the anthropologist must master the techniques so the are able to take the tourists on an interesting and informative journey.
According to Jamianto, participants in Tuesday's course included experts on the Javanese language, experts on the ancient Serat Centini manuscript and others with expertise considered rare and unusual.
"The experts on the Javanese language, for example, are trained to provide interpretation of the Javanese philosophy to tourists visiting the Yogyakarta palace," Jamianto said.
He added that the presence of such experts in the palace would be useful as there are many inscriptions around the palace compound in the Javanese script.
Jamianto acknowledged that the market for such tours of special interest is not as big as that for ordinary ones. Yet, he said, a niche market exists. Foreign university students studying in Indonesia, particularly those in Yogyakarta, are among those in the target market.
"UGM has been receiving hundreds of foreign students annually," he said.
He added that a fixed format for the knowledge-based tourism had yet to be formulated.
"We will continue the discussion on the matter with the tourism community so as to prevent making the tour to look like a lecture," he said.
Meanwhile, Chafid said that the center had prepared a number of tour packages for the knowledge-based tourism program including cultural, historical and natural tourism. Trips to the old city of Kotagede, the Imogiri royal cemetery, the renowned Parangtritis Beach and to the mystical Mt. Merapi are just some of the destinations that will be included.
"We have arranged test tours to some of the locations in May," Chafid said.
Chafid expressed hope that the breakthrough would help reduce the saturation of the tourism industry in the province, which currently relies on nature and culture.
With professors and scientists as tour guides, he said, the tour package will provide tourists with additional knowledge about the area.
He added that research conducted by his center found that the tourism industry in Yogyakarta had reached saturation point and therefore a breakthrough was needed to offer tourists an alternative.
This provided the inspiration for the idea of involving professors and scientists from different areas of expertise as tour guides to the province's attractions, based on the knowledge they had.
A tour package to the sand dunes of Parangtritis Beach in Bantul regency, for example, will involve sand dune experts from the university, int he hopes of providing visitors with a deeper understanding of the area.
"We have plenty of experts from various backgrounds ranging from geography, geology, forestry, anthropology, agriculture and fishery and marine science," Chafid said.
In response to the program, Chairman of the Yogyakarta Chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agency (ASITA), Mahidin Atin Desky, said the knowledge-based tourism would offer tourists a different way to experience the many wonder of the ancient city of Yogyakarta.
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