By Trustha Rembaka
Current
health problems in Indonesia cannot be separated from the reality of the Covid
19 pandemic that is still happening. The pandemic hit various fields of
community activity, covering government, education, economy, religion, trade
including tourism. The government, with a variety of policies, is trying to get
every sector keeps on its way, and the people are trying to get up by
optimizing their potencies. Since the midyear, the government has been
campaigning the new normal as a response to live with a new pattern, including
the implementation of health protocols in individuals, at work, and in public
places to lift up the people's lives.
Based
on the observation made through exposure or study visit as part of the Health
Problems in Indonesia program carried out in Goa Gong (Cave Gong) in Pacitan
regency, East Java (19/12/2020) it is known that the cave located in Bomo
village, Punung district, Pacitan Regency is part of the Global Geopark Network
acknowledged by UNESCO in 2015. The Geopark area itself stretches in three
regencies, namely Gunungkidul regency (DIY), Wonogiri regency (Central Java),
and Pacitan Regency (East Java), and specifically in Pacitan itself, the
geopark consists of caves, beaches, and archeological sites.
Considering
that the cave is included in a high-risk area exposed to the Covid-19 virus, so
tourism in the Gong cave requires a special treatment for the safety and security
of visitors from the exposure to the virus. The threat of exposure is due to
the presence of a group of visitors and the touch on the fences and rocks in
the pathways in the cave so that the tour manager is trying to seriously
implement health protocols with several new policies such as the use of gloves,
tour guides accompaniment, management of visitor number per group, distance arrangement
of per group entry and the duration of visit inside the cave.
In
addition to the policies above, the tourism destination manager has also
equipped the tourism destination with: 1) warning boards, banners dan posters
containing information on the implementation of health protocols in several
spots; 2) doing health checks such as gloves for visitors, body
temperature, masks, and regulating the
number of visitors per group; 3) providing facilities to maintain cleanliness
and health for washing hands and the availability of sufficient water, even
almost every kiosk selling souvenirs providing handwashing facilities, trash
bins according to the type of garbage and routine cleaning of facilities by the
staffs; 4) tourist guide role to remind visitors tirelessly to maintain health
protocols besides explaining the spots in the cave and various stories of it.
These
findings show the serious readiness of the managers and all parties involved in
the tourist area of Goa Gong in implementing health protocols.
This should be balanced that visitors also behave healthily during the visit.
However, the implementation of the health protocol in the Goa Gong area left a
new problem that must be seriously considered by the manager, that is, the waste
of gloves. How come? Please consider the presence of five hundred visitors per
day with a thousand used-gloves per day.
It is
expected that these findings will open people's optimism to be consistent with a
new life implementation based on a clean and healthy lifestyle so that better
public health can be realized and the existence of Goa Gong as God's gift in
the form of a very valuable geological heritage can bring prosperity to the
community. ***
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