Abundant potential tourism places in Yogyakarta Special Region urge the need of tour guides who have good skills to serve local and foreign tourists. The tour guides are demanded to enhance their English skills which would assist them to interact or guide tourist and to open the firmament of world tourism.
The English skills are necessary for tour guides since many tour guides still have low skills of communicating in English, particularly in a tourism place in Kalipucang, Bangunjiwo, Bantul, Yogyakarta. The circumstance inspired five students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), namely Aninda Ayu Kalistha, Dini Anderista, Novia Titi Saraswati, and Nurbaiti Kurniasari. They attempted to cope with the issue of the tour guides through organizing English language training to them for four months.
The chief Aninda Nuh Ayu Kalishta told that the English language training for tour guides in Kalipucang was a Student Creativity Program of Community Service (PKM-M). The PKM-M raised a topic of “Civilize Locally, Interact Globally”. It also cooperated with Department of Culture and Tourism of Bantul.
Aninda stated that her four friends and she decided to conduct English language training since they noticed that a lot of tour guides in Kalipucung tourism place had not been ready yet to face foreign tourists, particularly in term of English. She argued that English skills of tour guides could help them to acquaint the tourism place to the world. “Human resources of the tour guides in Kalipucang are not adequate good at foreign languages, especially English. In fact, English is the main aspect for them to interact with foreign tourists,” she uttered in the opening of “English Language Training for Tour Guide in Kalipucang” and Socialization of Tourism Awareness. It was carried out by a team of PKM-M and Department of Culture and Tourism of Bantul in tourism place of Kalipucang on Sunday (10/5).
Aninda inserted that the research and English language program for tour guides was also underlain by abundant potential of the tourism place in Kalipucang. She contended that public has not known yet many potentials of the tourism place as pottery, sculpture, painting, and local culinary food. “The potentials could attract foreign tourist to come to Kalipucang. Therefore, the tour guides should foster their English so that the potential of tourism place could be recognized by many people around the world,” she added.
The PKM-M of English language training for tour guides initiated by Aninda and her four friends was selected as a funded proposal by Student Creativity Program of Community Service 2015 conducted by Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI), Ministry of Education and Culture, Republic of Indonesia.
