Colorful Urban Village as the New Tourism Destination in Malang: The Positive Outcome of Slum Revitalization

Abstract

The existence of slum is in accordance with the development of human civilization per se. This emerges as the impact of low social and economic level as well as the lack of commitment from the government to solve such an issue. The slum in RW (hamlet) 02, Jodipan urban village, Blimbing Sub-district, Malang, is the most densely populated as well as the dirtiest slum among 17 regions of all urban villages in Malang. Such a neighborhood definitely impacts negatively toward the life of community, especially the development and growth of the children. Initiated by the prominent figure, community, Jodipan urban village official, university students conducting community services and private sector as the stakeholder, the painting of houses and environment had been successfully accomplished within one-and-a-half month, which somehow improved the urban village’s image drastically in terms of aesthetics and life standard. Only in a short time, through the role of printed media, local television, social media, and word of mouth, the beauty of Jodipan urban village has quickly spreaded among the people in Malang and other cities. The most significant outcome nowadays is that Jodipan colorful urban village has become the new tourism destination in Malang. Particularly during Saturday-Sunday, a lot of visitors from several regions come to visit the place. Such a phenomenon somehow provides a positive impact on the local inhabitant or people nearby due to work opportunity available, especially in culinary, in which they start business by opening food stall and small restaurant. The emergence of colorful urban village has directly changed, eventhough not too significant, the socio-economic condition of Jodipan community. Meanwhile, this study aims to describe the revitalization process of slum area into colorful urban village and to what extend such a place could be the new tourism destination in Malang. By applying qualitative descriptive approach, this study employed FGD (focus group discussion), in-depth interview with the project’s main actors and observation in RW 02, Jodipan urban village. The findings of this study are expected to be one of the references for Malang government and other cities in revitalizing the slum areas into potential assets for a city, and even become the new tourism destination visited by people from several places.

Keywords: slum revitalization, colorful urban village, tourism destination