Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Purbalingga, Central Java | Fri, 10/21/2011 9:00 AM
With urban air increasingly polluted, the natural beauty and cool air of small villages can offer an alternative, relieving fatigue and offering refreshment.
The village of Serang in Purbalingga regency, Central Java – known for its clean air, hospitable people and an abundance of strawberries – is a favorite tourist destination.
Located on the slopes of Mount Slamet, Serang is 30 km north of the regency capital of Purbalingga, and tourists walking along village paths will find vast expanses of lush greenery. With its fairly cold air, visitors to the village need only wear jackets or other warm coats.
With the status of a tourist village for ten years now, Serang is currently also being promoted as the only agro-tourism area in the regency with a population of 1.2 million. Interestingly, strawberries are the village’s major harvest, and they can be consumed by tourists who can pick them themselves.
Visitors are allowed to choose the plantations they like and pick fruit to be eaten to their satisfaction, only paying Rp 10,000 (US$1.13) per person. “If you want to take them home, the price is different [and figured] according to weight. But still they’re cheaper than what fruit markets or shops can offer,” plantation owner Kartiman, 40, told The Jakarta Post recently.
Serang’s agro-tourism promotion has followed from Purbalingga regency’s sucess in boosting its water park called Owabong. By drawing a million visitors and earning Rp 18 billion annually, Owabong in the last five years has exceeded the tourist and revenue records of Borobudur in Magelang, Central Java.
“With this achievement as our pride, we’re now determined to expand the regency’s tourism promotion zone by including the agro-tourist attraction of strawberry plantations in Serang,” Purbalingga deputy regent Sukento Ridho told the Post.
He said income from tourism had been the largest contributor to Purbalingga’s locally generated revenue (PAD). As a regency with a population living mostly in villages, it has earned Rp 79 billion worth of PAD this year. With 224 villages in 18 districts, the regency will continue to increase its Rp 825 billion budget for 2011 by empowering its tourism sector.
“Strawberry growers here have also prepared homestays for tourists so that visitors don’t worry about accommodations. In addition, villas are also available in the village,” Sukento said.
Bambang, 25, a tour guide in Serang, said in the last two years tourists visiting the village had totaled 1,000 a month on average. “Most of them are local tourists, but foreigners have also come here to stay many times,” Bambang said.
Apart from the accommodation, which includes meeting auditoriums for about 50 people at the villas, Bambang added that the village also offers traditional performances such as Purbalingga’s typical kentongan (wooden village alarm), art, bamboo horse dances and other Javanese shows.
Prayitno, a Purbalingga regency spokesman, said the village of Karangbanjar, a tourist village developed earlier, also contributed to the regency’s tourism highlights. “While Karangbanjar boasts home industries, Serang is proud of its fresh strawberries,” he said.
As part of its tourism campaign, Purbalingga has launched its “one man, ten tourists” program, in which each official of the regency administration is expected to invite 10 visitors. The strawberry cultivation area in Serang covers about 80 hectares, sufficient to support the Good Agriculture Practice Standard Operational Procedure (GAPSOP) plan.
In his recent visit to the village, a government community empowerment director for tourist destinations, Bakrie, said the government was promoting the development of about 500 tourist villages in the country. However, of that number, only about 10 percent have made proper progress and met international standards.
