The finding is important because the success of a tourism village depends not only on natural attractions and cultural resources. Local human resources also determine how effectively destinations serve visitors, develop tourism products, use digital technology, preserve cultural values, and protect the environment.
Tourism Recovery Creates New Challenges for Rural Tourism
The recovery of global tourism has increased the need for adaptive and capable tourism workers. United Nations Tourism reported approximately 790 million international tourist arrivals between January and July 2024, representing about 96 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Indonesia has also experienced significant growth in tourism village development. A total of 6,016 tourism villages participated in the 2024 Indonesian Tourism Village Award program. The figure demonstrates the growing importance of rural tourism as a mechanism for local economic development and community-based tourism.
However, rapid tourism development does not automatically guarantee adequate human resource capacity. Rural tourism villages continue to face challenges such as limited access to training, uneven digital skills, insufficient foreign-language competence, informal management systems, and difficulties in regenerating tourism managers.
Under these conditions, human resource resilience becomes increasingly important. Resilience is not simply the ability to survive a crisis. It also refers to the ability to learn, adapt, maintain performance, and improve practices when circumstances change.
Study Examines Experiences of 12 Tourism Stakeholders
Idrus used a qualitative approach to examine how human resource resilience is developed in rural tourism village management. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and documentation.
The study involved 12 informants consisting of three tourism village managers, three members of tourism awareness groups, two local community members, two local business actors, and two village officials.
Information from these different stakeholder groups was compared to identify recurring patterns in tourism management. The analysis involved reducing the collected information, organizing the findings, and drawing conclusions from the emerging patterns.
This approach allowed Idrus to examine resilience not merely as an individual characteristic, but as a collective capacity developed through leadership, cooperation, learning, and community participation.
Four Factors Strengthen Human Resource Resilience
The study identified four major factors that contribute to stronger human resource resilience in rural tourism villages.
First, adaptive skills. Tourism workers need to adjust their services to changing visitor expectations. Adaptation can involve improving hospitality, communication, tourism packages, and the use of social media for destination promotion.
These abilities help local tourism actors respond to changing market demand while dealing with limited facilities and budgets. When visitor numbers fluctuate or particular circumstances disrupt tourism activities, managers can adjust schedules, products, and services according to local conditions.
Second, collaborative leadership. Tourism village management cannot effectively depend on a single leader. The findings show that tourism management involves cooperation among tourism village managers, tourism awareness groups, community members, local businesses, and village authorities.
This collaborative approach distributes responsibilities for welcoming visitors, guiding activities, promotion, facility maintenance, cultural events, and local product development. As a result, tourism management becomes less dependent on individual leadership.
Third, local knowledge. Local culture, village history, traditional food, local products, natural resources, and community values are important assets for tourism development.
According to Idrus, local knowledge helps create authentic visitor experiences while preserving community identity. Local residents therefore become more than tourism workers; they become custodians of the knowledge and culture that make their destinations distinctive.
Fourth, continuous capacity building. Training, mentoring, peer learning, and practical experience help improve the skills and confidence of tourism village managers and community members.
The required training extends beyond basic tourism services. Digital skills, promotion, guiding, product development, cleanliness, financial management, and environmental awareness are also necessary for local human resources to respond effectively to changes in tourism.
Human Resource Resilience Cannot Be Built Through One-Time Training
One important message from the study is that human resource resilience cannot be created through a single training program. Community capabilities develop through continuous learning.
In practice, learning also occurs through everyday tourism activities. Visitor feedback, interactions with business actors, cooperation among community members, and experiences in solving operational problems become important sources of knowledge.
More experienced tourism actors can also help new members learn how to serve visitors, develop tourism products, and manage tourism activities. This creates an informal knowledge-transfer process within the community.
However, the study also identified several barriers, including limited managerial capabilities, weak digital competence, inconsistent training, inadequate infrastructure, and unequal community participation.
These challenges indicate that human resource development in tourism villages needs to be systematic, continuous, and tailored to the specific needs of each destination.
Implications for Tourism Managers and Village Governments
The findings provide practical implications for tourism village managers, village governments, tourism awareness groups, local businesses, and other tourism stakeholders.
Human resource development programs can focus on continuous training, digital literacy, leadership, hospitality, local tourism product development, digital marketing, financial management, and environmental and cultural preservation.
Village governments can also strengthen coordination mechanisms that give local communities greater opportunities to participate in tourism planning and decision-making. Greater participation can increase community ownership while ensuring that tourism benefits are distributed more broadly.
For local businesses, stronger human resource resilience can encourage the development of innovative tourism products that respond more effectively to market demand. For education and training institutions, the findings highlight the importance of practical programs designed around real challenges faced by rural tourism communities.
Human Resource Resilience Connects Tourism and Sustainability
Idrus positions human resource resilience as a link between human resource management, community-based tourism, and sustainable destination governance.
This perspective expands human resource management research, which has traditionally focused heavily on formal organizations such as hotels and tourism companies. Rural tourism villages have different characteristics because their management involves communities, social values, local culture, and village institutions.
Therefore, sustainable tourism development cannot be measured only by increases in visitor numbers. The ability of communities to preserve culture, manage environmental resources, collaborate, develop local businesses, and adapt to change is equally important.
The study shows that tourism villages with resilient human resources are better positioned to respond to market changes while ensuring that tourism continues to provide benefits for local communities.
Author Profile
Syech Idrus is an academic and researcher from Mataram Tourism College whose areas of interest include human resource management, human resource resilience, sustainable tourism, rural tourism villages, and community-based tourism.
Through this article, Idrus highlights the relationship between community capacity development and sustainable tourism destination management at the local level.
Research Source
The article discussed in this report is titled “Building Human Resource Resilience for Sustainable Tourism in Rural Tourism Villages,” written by Syech Idrus of Mataram Tourism College and published in 2026 in the International Journal of Management and Business Intelligence (IJMBI).
The study emphasizes that the future of rural tourism depends not only on natural and cultural attractions but also on the people responsible for managing them. When communities have adaptive skills, collaborative leadership, strong local knowledge, and continuous learning opportunities, tourism villages gain a stronger foundation for inclusive and sustainable development.
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