The D-IV English for Tourism Industry (BIIP) Study Program organized the “Tourism And Culinary Expo (TACE) POLINEMA, Shopping Tour While Practicing English” at Graha Teater on Tuesday (13/6/2023).
This Expo is a joint project of three practical courses namely Tourism Marketing Presentation, Hotel Industry, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Language and Tourism Industry with three supervisors namely Novitasari, S.Pd., M.Pd., Tri Astuti Handayani, S.S., M.Hum., Noverita Wahyuningsih, S.Pd., M.Pd.
TACE dibuka oleh Koordinator Program Studi D-IV BIIP, Achmad Suyono, S.Pd., M.Sc. dan diikuti oleh 25 booth mahasiswa BIIP semester 4 dan semester 6 serta 4 booth dari eksternal POLINEMA.
Noverita Wahyuningsih, S.Pd., M.Pd., one of the supervising lecturers, said this activity aims to provide a forum for students from D-IV BIIP to promote the potential of tourist destinations, accommodation, and culinary specialties from districts and cities in Indonesia so that they can become creative and innovative students, as well as provide experience and entrepreneurial skills for students.
“Booth participants represented 25 regencies and cities in Indonesia and most of them came from regencies and cities in East Java such as Pacitan, Ponorogo, Madiun, Tulungagung, Kediri, Batu and Malang. Each booth promotes regional potential in the form of brochure and video presentations,” he explained.
In addition to tourist destinations and accommodation, each booth also sells traditional food and snacks typical of the region such as angkingan Jogja, Nase’ Sodu Situbondo, pisang pepe, pempek Palembang, sale pisang Pacitan and refreshing specialty drinks such as dawet Jabung, es setrop, es pisang ijo and es kacang merah.
“The way the food is served is also unique. One example is pecel madiun, which is served using godong jati (teak leaves), making the taste more authentic and presenting an old school impression,” he explained.
Liviana, one of the TACE visitors, said that she was very curious to visit TACE because she had previously received information from social media that TACE has a unique event concept, which is a combination of tourism and culinary.
“Each booth sells different, tasty and cheap food and drinks, so visitors can choose the food they want. I bought red bean ice from Palembang, very tasty, fresh, lots of toppings and cheap,” he said.
In contrast to the story of Muhammad Resa, one of the visitors from D-III Mechanical Engineering Polinema. He visited the expo because he wanted to try tasting how typical Madiun pecel rice food, which itself has many types of pecel, including Kediri pecel, and Blitar pecel.
TACE POLINEMA provides benefits for students in honing soft skills and speaking skills. Students can practice the theory that has been obtained in class through the promotion of regional tourism potential using English. In addition, TACE can also be a means of channeling students’ creative ideas in order to foster an entrepreneurial spirit and prepare students as front liners in the tourism sector.
“Hopefully, this expo can be held annually in the future by still involving students as MICE organizers (Meeting, Incentive, Conference, and Exhibition), with a theme that is no less interesting than this year,” said Novitasari, S.Pd., M.Pd.
Tri Astuti Handayani, S.S., M.Hum. said through this expo students can have a stronger entrepreneurial spirit and soul, and lecturers have the opportunity to introduce and observe the practice of organizing shopping tours that are planned, managed, and run by students with the guidance of lecturers.
“Students are expected to better understand Indonesia’s diverse culture and raise it to an international scale, especially since this event is also attended by international students, as well as students from study programs other than English who want to practice speaking in English as an international language. With a good understanding of the culture, students are expected to be better prepared to become tour guides,” he concluded.