Supporting Indonesia’s Geotourism Potential Through a Unique Idea, a Team of FMIPA UI Students Won Third Place in the 2021 Land of Geoscience Essay Competition Land of Geoscience 2021: Essay Competition Supporting Indonesia’s Geotourism Potential Through a Unique Idea, a Team of FMIPA UI Students Won Third Place in the 2021 Land of Geoscience Essay Competition

Supporting Indonesia’s Geotourism Potential Through a Unique Idea, a Team of FMIPA UI Students Won Third Place in the 2021 Land of Geoscience Essay Competition conference Zoom Meeting on November 13, 2021, or exactly two weeks from the day of the essay submission announcement. 

Through a written work entitled “Natuna Geopark Virtual Festival as a Manifestation of Geotourism and Geoheritage Awareness Society”, the FMIPA UI contingent presented the idea of a virtual tourism festival to encourage public interest in geotourism potential and preserve geoheritage in Indonesia.

Dinda, as the team leader, claims that the innovation they initiated is quite unique because according to her, not many people have studied innovation in the field of geotourism.

“The innovation we’re bringing to this competition is holding a virtual tourism festival to foster public interest in geotourism potential and preserve our geoheritage,” Dinda told the FMIPA UI Public Relations team.

The idea emerged because, according to him, public insight and awareness regarding the management, development, and preservation of geotourism and geoheritage areas in Indonesia had not yet developed.

“We came up with this idea because of the lack of public knowledge and awareness regarding the management, development, and preservation of geotourism areas or geoheritage sites in Indonesia,” he said.

For example, he explained the use of innovation in virtual geotourism festivals on Natuna Island, with the aim of allowing the festival to be enjoyed by the wider community without having to attend the actual location in person. 

Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting nearly every country worldwide and hampering human activity and mobility, virtual festivals like this can be a solution for developing entertaining and educational geotourism.

“We can look at the Natuna Island geotourism area as an example. One way to foster public interest and awareness in developing geotourism potential is by holding a festival. However, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, our team came up with an innovation in the form of a virtual festival, supported by technology and an internet connection. We aimed this idea so that the public could still contribute to the management and development of geotourism in the Natuna Geopark. At the festival, people could still see and explore the geotourism area without having to come to the location in person,” Dinda continued.

Regarding the division of tasks, one of the team members, Shafa, revealed that the division of tasks went well even without a supervisor.

“To divide up the assignments, we divided them based on subtopics. Afterward, we held discussions to share our opinions on each other’s writing, while also revising and synchronizing the paragraphs. Although we didn’t have a supervisor, thankfully everything went smoothly. Our team also utilized various existing official and valid data and literature,” said Shafa.

He admitted that the Cinder.ella team was not free from challenges, one of which was the difficulty in finding references on related topics due to the lack of journals or references.

However, these challenges did not become an obstacle because of their high motivation due to their interest in the potential. renewable energy dan geowisata. Selain itu, mereka juga mengakui bahwa banyak manfaat yang didapatkan dari pengalaman lombanya tersebut.

“There are so many benefits that we can get, such as learning new things when we do it. research “For writing materials and to learn how to convey ideas in a scientific paper. Therefore, we believe competitions are very important for students,” said Dinda, expressing her opinion, which was also agreed by her two colleagues.

Closing the interview with the UI Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Public Relations Team, one of the team members, Zumrotul, emphasized that the key to maintaining enthusiasm for participating in competitions is to start and be consistent. He believes that actively participating in competitions can be an opportunity to explore oneself and one’s knowledge.

Land of Geoscience 2021: Essay Competition This competition is for Indonesian university, polytechnic, and civil service school students. It aims to develop interest and thinking about earth science and the energy industry through essays. The event is organized by the Veteran National Development University (UPN) in Yogyakarta.

As for timeline The competition began with the collection of essay manuscripts on July 25, 2021, to September 31, 2021, and ended with the announcement of the winners of the online platform competition on November 13, 2021.