Display of V-Eco Website Design by PWK ITS students

Campus ITS, ITS News – In the pandemic Covid-19 as it is today people are still afraid to tour, despite having entered a new normal life ( the new normal ). As a follow-up to this problem, a team of students from the Department of Regional and Urban Planning (PWK) of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) designed an innovation in the form of a virtual tour called V-Eco.

They are Aliya Ulil Faddila, Sukma Dyah Aini, and Selvi Aini Mutiara Fadillah. The three of them started the V-Eco design due to their anxiety about tourist visits that began to decline during the pandemic. Moreover, tourism is based on the Conservation and Education Model Area (AMKE). “So we try to make tourism safer during a pandemic with this virtual concept,” said Aliya Ulil Faddila, team leader.

The student, who is usually called Ulil, continued, V-Eco is here to solve various tourism problems during the pandemic in Indonesia. Previously, Ulil and his team had researched one of the AMKE tours, namely in Oro-Oro Ombo Village, Batu City. “After that, a V-Eco development plan will be carried out in underdeveloped villages that have tourist attractions throughout Indonesia,” she explained.

Aliyah Ulil Faddila, as the team leader, showed her team’s V-Eco design.

This student from Jombang explained that Oro-Oro Ombo is one of the Hulu Das who plays an important role in the community. To conserve and educate the farming community, who are members of the Forest Farmers Group in the Panderman area, which established herbal educational tours. Many communities are involved and depend on this AMKE tourism. “So that through V-Eco it can have a multiplier effect on the surrounding community,” she said.

According to Ulil, V-Eco was designed in the form of a website that has virtual videos with a three-dimensional (3D) focus. Later, visitors can access the website and choose where to travel. Furthermore, visitors will be invited to tour the tourist spot through three-dimensional (3D) videos. “Later, visitors can find out what is on tour, from the contents of the tour to what is sold there,” said the girl who was born on December 10, 1999.

Selvi Aini Mutiara Fadillah, one of the team members showing V-Eco

Ulil continued, the V-Eco is also equipped with a favorite feature that saves the visitors’ trips they like. So that virtual videos can be enjoyed and played again and again anytime. Besides, visitors can also add insight into tourism and at the same time buy superior products sold in these tours through the V-Eco website. “We made it in the form of a website so that it is user-friendly, and we don’t have to bother downloading applications which sometimes use up memory,” she added.

Thanks to this innovation, this team has also won 1st place in the 2020 Gemintang National Scientific Writing Competition, held by the PWK Student Association of the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Brawijaya, last November. As one of the delegates from ITS, this team was guided by a lecturer from the PWK Department, Putu Gde Ariastita ST MT, in developing innovation.

Sukma Dyah Aini, one of the team members, while showing V-Eco.

Even so, Ulil admitted that she had experienced several obstacles, such as when the proposal was worked out, which had to be hampered due to limited communication. “Even though there is already a conference app that can be used, the difference in the location of residence between team members causes the signal to be unstable and hinders coordination among teams and the process of collecting data through online interviews,” she explained.

In the future, Ulil targets developing V-Eco to the current younger generation so that the tourism potential in Indonesia continues to grow. Ulil hopes that V-Eco can impact the communities around the tourism in the form of increased income so that AMKE-based tourist attractions such as in Oro-Oro Ombo Village can become resilient tours. “Besides, we also want this concept to be implemented by managers through cooperation with related stakeholders,” she concluded. (bob/nadh/ITS Public Relations)