Strengthening the capacity of women’s family welfare group (PKK) members in managing local tourism potential

Abstract

This community service program was implemented by the D4 Tourism Destination Study Program, Universitas Merdeka Malang, in collaboration with POKJA 3 of the Women’s Family Welfare Group (PKK) of Purwantoro Village, Malang City. The program aimed to strengthen the capacity of PKK members to manage local tourism potential through an empowerment-based and community-based tourism approach. The program, entitled “Creating, Empowering, and Tourism Development” (Berkarya, Berdaya, Berwisata), integrated training in culinary and handicraft product innovation, packaging and branding, digital marketing, basic hospitality, and simple business management. The method applied a participatory community empowerment model through coordination, needs mapping, experiential training, mentoring, evaluation, and follow-up planning over a three-month period. Thirty active PKK members participated in the program and were evaluated using a 20-item pre-test and post-test instrument, observation, interviews, focus group discussions, product assessment, and documentation. The average pre-test score was 43.0 and the average post-test score was 75.3, indicating a 75.1% increase in participant understanding and practical capacity. The program also produced five flagship culinary and handicraft products, improved packaging and branding, promotional social media content, simple SOPs, and the community product identity “PKK Berkarya Purwantoro.” These results show that PKK empowerment can support the creative economy and strengthen the local tourism destination support system when accompanied by structured training, digital promotion, institutional mentoring, and stakeholder collaboration.