Community Empowerment Strategy: Ecospa Tourism Prospects in Nglanggeran Tourism Village Gunung Kidul Yogyakarta

Abstract

This article focuses on the factors that led to the success of empowerment for community-based tourism. Community-based tourism is characterized as a form of tourism village in Nglanggeran village located in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. Community participation as a process in decision making and the development of sustainable natural and cultural resources is influenced by the empowerment of the community itself. The impact of community empowerment strategies can contribute to the needs of rural communities, entrepreneurship and contribute to local economic and cultural goals. The Ecospa consists of a community of people who get identified needs in certain communities that have the potential for ecotourism. The connection of spa products contributes to supporting ecospa tourism. Ecospa is one of the tourism strategies with community empowerment to form spa entrepreneurs by involving socio-economic factors and transfer of knowledge with skills training. The method of research uses qualitative methods and direct observation on community empowerment. This paper considers the realization of community empowerment through relationship marketing partnerships involving three sectors (socio-economic, community empowerment, entrepreneurship) which are often called marketing relationship partnerships