After Decades, The Arrangement Of The Borobudur Area Is Finally Completed

The traders of Borobudur have occupied the Borobudur Museum and Art Village area. BETWEEN A/Heru Suyitno

The Borobudur Temple Area in Magelang Regency, Central Java, is now clean from traders and parking tourist cars because it has occupied a new location, namely in the Borobudur Museum and Art Village area.

Since September 16, 2024, officers have tested a new parking lot. This is important for PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan, and Ratu Boko (TWC) as the manager of the tourist area to find out what needs to be improved from the visitor side.

The effort to rearrange the Borobudur area has actually been going on for decades, but it was only completed at the end of President Joko Widodo's administration.

The re-structuring of the Borobudur area is expected to increase tourist visits and community welfare.

The museum and Kampung Seni Borobudur occupies an area of 10.74 hectares, which accommodates 1,943 traders and parking capacity for 414 motorcycles, 368 cars, 96 buses.

In the new location, there are pavilion buildings, Borobudur Museum, ticket counters, amphitheaters, culinary kiosks, and selling places for traders.

The Borobudur Art Museum and Village are the entrances for visitors to the world's largest Buddhist temple.

The trial was carried out because the SOE wanted to ensure that before it was fully functioning, the community, especially visitors, could be more familiar because in the transition process there were many valuable inputs from the community.

The crowd of visitors at Borobudur Temple will also be supported by the construction of the Semarang-Yogyakarta Toll Road which will pass through the Magelang Regency area.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the Semarang-Yogyakarta Toll Road would "carry" people around 20 million per year.

The projected tourists who will visit the Borobudur area are about two million people per year. They, among others, are Buddhists from Thailand, China, and Japan, and others.

After the arrangement is complete, the tourists can stay 5-10 days. This length of stay is very important and those who will enjoy it are the people of Borobudur and surrounding areas.

Therefore, the community must be prepared, educated, given training so that new MSMEs will emerge and art activities will be more stretched here.

In the arrangement, there is no change in the function of land anymore, such as agriculture, so that people can still farm. Tourists also enjoy the beauty of Borobudur and on the same side, this temple is also really protected.

The regional spatial plan (RTRW) is really closely maintained so that later things don't suddenly appear that are not necessary and all architectures must describe Javanese or Borobudur architecture.

InJourney Tourism Marketing and Program Director Maya Watono conveyed that the potential for cultural and spiritual tourism in Borobudur is very large.

There are around 450 million Buddhists in this world, the majority living in Asia and Southeast Asia. Nearest neighboring Thailand, is inhabited by 64 million Buddhists.

The arrival of tourists to Borobudur will have a very extraordinary economic impact. Not only for the Borobudur area but Magelang and Central Java.

With the increase in 2 million foreign tourists, it has changed Indonesia's ranking, even above Malaysia, from rank 5 to rank 4.

So the impact is very significant, not only for Borobudur, Central Java, but for Indonesia because international tourists have increased by 2 million and that will have an overall impact on Indonesia.

One of the efforts to open international connectivity, InJourney has already conducted an MoU with Thai Airways, by opening direct flights from Bangkok to Yogyakarta International Airport.

With the opening of direct flight connectivity, there will definitely be many foreign tourists who will come directly to Borobudur.

Apart from Thailand, it will also gain high interest from tourists from China, Taiwan, and Japan. The various foreign nationals want to come to enjoy the splendor and beauty of Borobudur.

President Director of PT Taman Wisata Borobudur, Prambanan, and Ratu Boko (TWC) Febrina Intan said that there are indeed many stakeholders, village communities, village governments, sub-districts, Magelang Regency, Central Java Provincial Government, but all can be managed with the spirit of togetherness, building a tourism ecosystem, not highlighting egosectoral.

His party also communicated with traders. Most of them understand the reason they have to be moved to a better place because in the past their condition was not fun, especially for visitors.

PT TWC also provides education, MSME training in collaboration with regional banks. Therefore, the existence of Borobudur Art Village in Kujon must bring better good and social economic impacts than before.

If someone says that there are still people who have not got a place in Kujon, according to him, it is just a matter of communication that is not understood together.

The trial of the Borobudur Museum and Art Village has been going well. So, tourists who come to enjoy the art village also hope to get an art-valued souvenir.

Currently, the Borobudur Temple area is green after the traders left the Borobudur Temple area.

During this trial period, PT TWC provided free electric cars to pick up visitors from the Museum and Borobudur Art Village to Borobudur Temple or vice versa.

There are 15 electric cars with a capacity of 23 passengers to pick up tourists going to Borobudur Temple.

To get to Borobudur Temple from the Museum and Borobudur Art Village, in addition to using a pick-up vehicle, visitors can walk as far as 1,000-1,200 meters.

Pedestrians built will also provide pedestrian comfort because there are many trees along the way to Borobudur Temple.