PAKPONG: An EcotourismBased Business Model of a Village Owned Enterprise (BUMDes) for Improving Community Welfare toward the Achievement of the Village SDGs in Denai Lama

Abstract

This study examines PAKPONG, short for Paket Kampoeng, an integrated tourism package run by the village owned enterprise (BUMDes) behind Paloh Naga Agrotourism in Denai Lama Village, Deli Serdang Regency, and treats it as a doorway into how an ecotourism-based village business keeps welfare circulating among its residents while chasing the Village SDG targets at the same time. PAKPONG is a seven hour package priced at IDR 160,000 per person that strings together a Malay traditional welcome, hands on farming, village cooking, crafts, and performing arts into one journey that hops from venue to venue on an odong-odong shuttle. The research was carried out qualitatively with a single case study design. Data were collected through in depth interviews with seven informants, direct observation, and document tracing, then processed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña and tested through triangulation. The result: five dimensions of business model innovation turn out to work hand in hand, from value creation all the way to sustainability, and they contribute in a very real way to four Village SDG targets, most of all decent work that embraces the elderly and responsible production. Yet one finding nags. This place is skilled at creating but tongue tied at telling the world, so a well crafted product goes almost entirely unmarketed. The fate of community welfare, then, is decided more by fixing governance and marketing than by giving birth to new attractions.