Initiating a Multicultural Tourism Village to Overcome Disasters of Intolerance and Social Disintegration

Abstract

The religious aspect is one of the prominent determinants shaping diversity in Indonesia. Recently, there have been many problems in the relations among religious adherents, especially related to cases of intolerance, radicalism, and social polarization. This is a significant threat that can potentially bring about social disasters, namely conflict and national disintegration. Therefore, innovation and solutions are needed to mitigate these social disasters. This research aims to identify the potential for social, cultural, and natural capital of local communities in Central Java Indonesia, which is related to social diversity, and optimizing these potentials through social engineering in the form of a Multicultural Tourism Village so that it can become a role model in the learning and dissemination of national values and multiculturalism through educational activities. The results of the study show that local communities in Kalisat Hamlet Central Java have great potential to be developed into a tourism village called Kampung Bhinneka or Diversity Village due to their natural, social, cultural, and human resources. The strongest potential found in the Kalisat Hamlet’s community is the diversity of religions adhered to by the community, but the relations among the adherents are intertwined in harmony and balance. This potential is the principal capital for developing edu-tourism to learn directly from the community about the practice of diversity and multiculturalism in the form of Kampung Bhinneka Tourism Village.