Tourist Experience in Mandala Pepadhanging Jagad Travel Package for Heritage Tourism Development in Borobudur Temple Compound

Abstract

Tourist experience has become a focal point in tourism management studies. Unforgettable, special, and spectacular travel experience is challenged to encourage not only in quantity side in the material form of numbers of visitors but also develop values that maintain, preserve, and conserve heritage tourism principles. Development of heritage tourism by integrating the concept of tourism and cultural conservation has become one of the efforts carried in Borobudur Temple Compound. One of the core elements in this effort was the development of travel experience with channeling narratives in tourism practices. The Borobudur Temple Compound holds a bountiful of narratives that have been buried in decades. Reviving the narratives around Borobudur becomes essential in managing heritage tourism and preserving cultural heritage. Selected narratives collected in the legend of Borobudur are soon to be integrated into tourism practice. Focusing on the increase of effectiveness in creating travel experience; transfer knowledge and values of these selected stories or narratives are studied to grasp tourist satisfaction determined by tourist’s psychological flow. Thus, these experiences become essential in evaluating heritage tourism development through narrations in Borobudur Compounds. This research-based article presents the significance of travel experience into two main focus: the narratives and travel experience with the narrative storytelling, including creativity in creating tour amenities, and management from tour guide competencies from two selected Borobudur narrative. Using survey and focus group interview the outcomes shows a positive tourist experience satisfaction in which can be used as a foundation to thrust the development of heritage tourism policies in Indonesia.