Geotourism is a concept with a special interest in utilizing the potential of natural resources such as landscapes, rocks, geological structures and geological history of an area as tourism potential. The development of tourist areas into geotourism requires an understanding of all aspects of geology with a scope covering all abiotic components including rocks, fossils, soil, water, landforms, and geological history.Semarang City has unique geological features that deserves to be utilized as a tourist attraction. The landscape that divides Semarang City into lower Semarang and upper Semarang also makes Semarang an interesting urban area. In the context of geology, apart from the uniqueness of the landscape, the city of Semarang also has an interesting rock composition and holds a complex geological history. Therefore, the development of tourism in the city of Semarang into geotourism is significant.
The Semarang City Culture and Tourism Office, which in this case is a stakeholder in the tourism sector, cooperates with the Geological Engineering Department in an effort to develop Semarang City geotourism. The initial effort made through the cooperation of the two parties was to organize training and workshops on the concept of geotourism and geological insight into the Semarang City which was attended by tour guides and tourism activists throughout the city.This activity will be held on August 8-12, 2022, at The Noorman Hotel Semarang. The material given to the participants includes material on the basics of scouting and general geological theory. In addition, an overview of the concept of developing tourism into geotourism is also given so that participants gain complete knowledge about geotourism and its development efforts. This training activity was also followed by field activities where participants had the opportunity to directly get an explanation of the geology at tourist sites that would be developed as geotourism areas.
The resource person from the Department of Geological Engineering who was involved in this activity was Dr.rer.nat. Ir. Thomas Triadi Putranto, S.T., M.Eng., IPU, Rinal Khaidar Ali, S.T., M.Eng., Nurakhmi Qadaryati, S.T., M.Eng., and Anis Kurniasih, S.T., M.T. They played a role in providing material to the training participants including the basic concepts of geotourism, general geology, the geology of Semarang City, and its geotourism potential.By conducting this activity, we hope that geotourism in Semarang City can develop well so that it brings benefits to the whole community.
–AK–
