Kamis, 02 April 2009

Siala Tourism: A Bridge to Mandailing Hospitality
Abdul Rozak Tanjung

Lesson Learnt From Malaysia Hospitality

When I had a trip to an international seminar on livelihoods recovery in Negombo Srilanka, November 2008, I was confuse when the flight name written as MH 648 leaving from Polonia Airport for KLIA Kuala Lumpur and Colombo International Airport. Frankly, I had some international trips to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and some other cities within Thailand before, where I took ticket written so closed to the flight company name like Garuda Airlines (GA). I called back an administration officer in my office in Banda Aceh to clarify the flight company and I got the clearance that the flight company is Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Reading some stuff provided for the passengers on my seat, I got a new little language that MH stands for Malaysia Hospitality. I just thought that MH refers to the way of Malaysian to welcome the passenger to the aircraft. After some observations I made through the trips for Colombo, I got a clear message that MH is trade mark of the Malaysian Airlines services.What is obviously the relation between Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian Hospitality? As I said earlier, the way of serving passengers with luxurious service and facilities as well as nice flight meal is the manifestation of Malaysia Hospitality.

Turning back to most of Indonesian flight companies, MAS services are quite different and much more civilized that Indonesian flight companies. The way the stewards and stewardess serve the passengers is so elegant like I was the nobleman in a royal country or prominent people in the government institution. I was actually nothing comparing to my flight mates coming for countries around the world. However, I learnt that MAS prioritize the services to the passengers regardless of nation, belief, background as well as the occupation of us.

Furthermore, I learnt from the tourism magazines provided on my seat that MH term already a big trade mark of Malaysian tourism as a whole. The “hospitality” of Malay has become a potential international tourist trade of Malaysia. How about the Indonesia hospitality?. As fact of matter, we have plenty of nations and tribes within our diverse country. However, most of the nations and tribes within our country have the same hospitality to what Malaysia has. The main problem was the failure of tourism business sector to say “internationalize” the Indonesian hospitality as well as with its jargon.

Mandailing Hospitality: A New Trade Mark on Exploring Mandailing Tourism

It is too early to say that Malaysian Hospitality closely the same to what Mandailing society has. However, there are some similarities between Malay (dominant resident of Malaysia) and Mandailing especially in religious and cultural sector. The similarity on religious sector is that most of Malay and Mandailiness are predominantly Moslem where they have current cultural ceremony mostly regard to Islam rule. On cultural sector, both tribes have strong kinship relation where they have mutual works in having ceremonial works or even in economic-based works as well as prioritize consensus in making policies.

Concurrent to the above description, it is already clear that Mandailing can explore their tourism potential like Malaysian way of thinking. The most potential challenges face Mandailing is about the capacity of government and the society to explore its potential in tourism sector as well as the human resource of Mandailingness to promote their potentials.

Mandailing does not merely refer to the area of administration but mostly refers to the cultural entity where now at least three district governments involved in which are Mandailing Natal itself, Kota Sidempuan and South Tapanuli Regency. Both regencies could start exploring their tourism potential by embedding Mandailing touch within. Let both local governments bring the Mandailing Hospitality as the common trade mark without any complain from each others.

Siala Tourism: A Bridge to Mandailing Hospitality

Siala stands for "Sibanggor Tarlola" which is the area covering ten villages around Sorik Marapi Mount and is now become one sub district government. The tourism potentials are vary within this area, ranging from Sibanggor Hot spring, Traditional Cemetery in Perkampungan Paddy field, Islam Pilgrimage in Kampung Lama, Flower and Butterfly parks in Hutanamale. These tourism potentials must explore by the society and government immediately.

Looking back to “Mandailing Hospitality” trade mark, Siala Sampagul Foundation will initiate the step in reaching the implementation of MH-based tourism in Mandailing. Will it be working appropriately? We do not have idea yet, but it we must do something to achieve the goal