Lake Toba

1. Overview of Lake Toba

Lake Toba is the largest natural lake in Indonesia located in North Sumatra. Created from a
massive supervolcanic eruption around 74,000 years ago, Lake Toba covers an area of 1,707
square kilometers. There are several islands in the middle of the lake, but the largest is
Samosir Island, which occupies almost 750 square kilometers of the lake. Currently, Lake
Toba is one of the most famous tourist spot in Sumatra Island thanks to its signature natural
environment, and many efforts have been given to develop the nature as an attraction. For
instance, you can go Kayaking to enjoy the lake view, or go fishing on a traditional
fisherman’s boat. Or you can also check out some of the waterfall they have in the Samosir
Island, like the 120-meter tall Sipiso-Piso Waterfall or the Binanggalom Waterfall. Other
than the view, another thing to appreciate is the Batak culture. The Batak Viillage at
Ambarita is one of the most famous tourist spot as it has easy access to the ruins of ancient
Batak Village, along with its stone chairs and head-chopping block. Hiring a Batak guide is
also possible to teach the tourists about the Batak ancient culture and ritual. In all, Lake Toba
has a lot of potential to be developed as the center of tourism industry as it has the asset of
beautiful nature and rich culture.
2. Impacts, Trends and Issues of Tourism.
2.1. Impacts of Tourism
There are several aspects that are impacted by the development of tourism in the Lake
Toba, such as the following:
 Economic Impact
The primary occupations of many citizens living near Lake Toba are fishermen.
With the development of tourism industry in the lake, many jobs have been
created to cater the tourists, which also become a huge source of income for the
people. Starting from building hotels and the employment of people as the staffs,
the opening of many souvenir shops that sell specialty merchandise and batik,
renting their boats and acting as a guide for the tourists are to name a few jobs
 that have been created. Overall, the development of the tourism brings in a lot of
income to the citizens and also to the local government.
 Social and Cultural Impact
The biggest problem caused by the coming of tourists in Lake Toba is social
degradation, in which the people have started to leave ancient cultural value. The
foundation in the Batak culture is the equality of spiritual aspect and material
aspect. With the exchange of culture during the visit of tourist, such respect to
the culture and norms has started to degrade with each passing generation. This is
because the cultural value of the tourists is usually opposite of the local residents’.
This huge shift in value and norm also affected to the change in social characters
of the local people. To take a classic example, the trend of clubbing, free sex and
drugs. In result, clubs and illegal brothels are built to satisfy these requests. Even
though it clashes with the norms and beliefs, it is a big source of income as
tourists are willing to spend a lot of money for it.
 Environmental Impact
There is a lot of effort by the government when they try to promote Lake Toba.
Funds are given to clean and maintain the environment. Several dams and
irrigation system are built, and it also benefits the life of local residents. However,
in other hand, the development of tourism and coming of tourism have destroyed
a lot of natural ecology of Lake Toba. The high demand of tourism makes a lot of
enterprises invest in the tourism industry in Lake Toba. This results in building
of many hotels, either middle or high-class. It takes a lot of lands, and some even
resort to removal of forests to convert it to high building. These deforestations
are often not taken care of properly, and always leave a lot of damage to the
surrounding soil. Another negative impact is the loss of habitats for species living
inside the forest which can lead to the extinctions of wildlife. Moreover, the
tourists who come visit Lake Toba are often not respectful toward the
environment, and leave a lot of waste. Due to the lack of attention to the waste
problems by the locals, it keeps on piling, and eventually affects the land and
also the lake water. In result, even the fishing sector is negatively affected as the
water is polluted, and degrades the quality of water. Research shows that there is
 a change in the trophic level in the water of Lake Toba into eutrophic. This is
caused by the increase of phosphor and other organic material which result also
in the increase of biological oxygen demand (BOD) until it exceeds average.
Such increase is the result of activities happening in-land, which includes tourism.
This is a big threat for the current biodiversity and research shows that around
80% of local fishes are going to extinct if no solution is going to be given.
 Political Impact
When the tourism industry starts to grow and bring in a lot of income,
government will start to invest more in the industry. It can be done by giving a
good image of the area to promote it more. They will improve the safety more
and decide to loosen the law and rule of the area to make it easier to build
tourism facilities. They even decide the building of an airport as they see the big
potential in the growth of tourism in Lake Toba. In return, tourism actually
brings in a lot of money to the local and government, so it is expected that the
government will pay more attention to the area.
2.2. Trends Facing The Hospitality and Tourism Industry and Their Implications on Lake
Toba
The trends in the tourism industry at the moment are majorly influenced by the
millennial generation, as they are the new big driving force of the industry. The young
travellers prefer a new unknown destination that would provide a lot of new experiences.
In recent years, ecological and educational tours have been highly in demand and it is
expected to be much higher in the future. Such tours are usually rare experiences that
educate and share inside information on the area, and how to protect it for the future.
Some places even fund on ecological projects such as forest or animal restoration to
attract tourists. Travellers have also started to shift from psychocentric to midcentric or
allocentric, as the trend of enjoying local experience has been more popular. They want
to do what the locals do and eat where locals eat. They also take interest in history and
culture of the destination area, and have the desire to learn more. And one interesting
thing that has been on trend is the planning of tour for the pictures. In short, it means to
tour solely for the beautiful picture with the destination view as the background. A
Museum of Selfies is even built in Hollywood, where the arts presented inside is
 designed for the purpose of taking beautiful and interesting selfies. These are the current
trends of the tourism industry, and many of these trends are applicable or are already
available in Lake Toba. Firstly, beautiful view are everywhere in Lake Toba as many
places are still quite traditional. The scenery would make a good background photo.
Since Lake Toba is still quite strong culturally, the tourists can learn about the culture
from the locals, and appreciate the food, dance and song. The landscape of Lake Toba is
enough to provide an ecological tour. In the lake, there live millions of species of fishes
and the forest still houses wildlife. The development of Lake Toba has just been starting,
so the destination itself is still new and has so much to explore. In conclusion, Lake
Toba actually fits the current trend of the tourism industry.
2.3. Issues and Challenges Associated With Developing Tourism In Lake Toba
Several issues and challenges have risen during the development of tourism industry in
Lake Toba. One of them is the problem of environmental pollution. Part of this problem
is caused by the tourist, but is largely caused by the local residents themselves. The
locals have the habit littering and have little concern towards hygiene. Water pollution is
also a big problem as the lake is a big asset for the tourism industry. However, in recent
years, the water quality has started to deteriorate because of littering and untreated
pesticide waste. Another problem concerns the safety of the attraction. An accident of
boat sinking in 2018 shows the lack of professionalism in maintaining and loose rules
that manage the boat attraction. This accident which results in hundreds of victims is
widely criticized by the visiting tourists and gives a bad image to Lake Toba. This might
result in the decrease of popularity as a tourist destination. Other concern is the
degradation of social value and norm. An impact the tourists gave is the culture they
bring into the area, and the locals are quite willing in adapting such culture into theirs.
Some of the culture is quite different from the local’s culture, so this change also impact
negatively towards the sustainability of the culture. Lastly is the question of longevity of
the tourism industry in Lake Toba. The aim of the government is the development of the
tourism internationally. However, with the recent accident of drowning boat and lack of
investor, the popularity of the tourism of Lake Toba might just be limited to the
surrounding locals who is also used to the loose rules and maintenance. Lack of
 promotion and education can also be big factors that can affect the sustainability of the
tourism.
3. Recommendations and Solution To Issues and Challenges To Associate With Developing
Lake Toba
There are several issues and challenges in developing the tourism industry in Lake Toba,
such as the following:
 The pollution
Pollution has always been a big issue in Lake Toba even before the government
attempts to develop the tourism industry in the area. Littering is an inseparable
habit from the locals, and often the local government does not make any attempt
to resolve the matter. The locals themselves also are not knowledgeable in the
area of recycling and the importance of taking care of the ecology. They handle
most of the farming pesticide and domestic fish food waste by throwing them
into the water without treating them. In result, the chemical contained in the
waste pollutes the water and kills thousand species of fishes. This also damages
the appearance of the water which is supposed to be clear into dirty and unclean
color. Since one of the appeals of Lake Toba is the beautiful lake, tourists might
avoid Lake Toba as their travel destination if they know of its condition. In order
to develop the tourism industry, government must take control of this problem
and make sure that the environment will not be damaged much further in the
future. A solution to this problem is to take care of the current waste in the
environment. Government can dispatch a team specializing in cleaning up the
litter on the street and beaches. Arrange several volunteering occasions to the
locals and provide them with all the necessary tools to clean up the litters to
speed up the whole cleaning process. This can also be a good opportunity to
educate the whole community the importance of taking care of the environment.
Awareness must be raised in them that tourism can be a big source of income of
them, and they can play a part in attracting the tourists by keeping the place clean
and tidy. This education is a vital point as even if the government put all the
effort in cleaning up the place, it will be useless if the locals themselves repeat on
ruining the environment. The government can put up some warning to the locals
 and also tourists. To the people who violate the rule, the local government can
resort to fining them To solve the water pollution issue, the government can try
to apply some modern system to treat the wastewater in the lake water. There is
the wastewater treatment which is a process used to convert wastewater into an
affluent that can be returned to the water cycle through physical, chemical or
biological process with minimum impact on the environment. After the treatment,
it is also necessary to prevent the water pollution in the upcoming future. It is
necessary to have a tighter rule concerning throwing waste inside the water, and
the violator must be strictly punished to prevent it from happening again.
Government must educate the concerned people with way to reduce the
wastewater and provide the technology to them. Some of them are the practice of
responsible use of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. Because surface runoff of
these can unknowingly goes inside water body, farmers can start to use organic
options whenever possible, prevent spills and avoid applying near water systems.
For other purpose, it is forbidden to throw away their waste into the water and
must be treated before throwing it.. Most importantly, government must become
strict when applying all of these methods and show that they are serious in
improving the area as the local government can be quite lax previously to people
violating rule.
 Safety of Attraction
The drowning accident KM Sinar Bangun boat in Lake Toba is a big hit towards
the tourism industry. After the accident, some Swiss tourists that were visiting
Lake Toba start to check the port activities and standard. They told that the
standard and safety of Samosir was not up to par to those in their country, and
criticized the agency performance concerned. It was also concluded that there
was no strict rule that results in the whole incident where hundreds of people
became the victims. Since this was spread to the media, there is a big possibility
that a lot of international community know about this incident when researching
about Lake Toba. This incident will give a bad image to Lake Toba and there
will be a big loss in potential tourist. To change this image, the government must
make a lot of effort to promote back the place. Firstly, there is already the rule
 concerning the coordination, synchronicity and control of water attraction in
Perpres Number 49 Year 2016. However, the control surrounding this rule is
very loose and is not followed properly when creating such attractions. The
reasons of the drowning are believed to be the forcing of putting more customers
in the boat and also the lack of skill from the boat driver. This can all be
prevented by tightening the rule in where every water attraction must follow the
decided amount of customer and have the right qualification of the driver. The
customers themselves must also be told of the driver qualification and amount of
people allowed as they can also prevent the whole situation. The government
must also be able to assure the people that rules are now reformed and can be
believed that the attractions are now safe. There are also several cases of thefts in
the area of Lake Toba, and this can prove to worsen the image of Lake Toba.
This kind of cases, even if small, must be resolved quickly, either by tightening
the rules or putting more police officer to patrol around tourist areas. If Lake
Toba want to try to cater to the international tourists, the government must take
this cases with more care, as international communities are very uptight about
these kind of rules because they want to feel safe during their travel. If the
government could not provide them with a sense of safety, then it will harden the
development of tourism industry in Lake Toba.
 Social Degradation
The locals have started to experience shift in their ancient culture to those that
are brought in by the tourists. This becomes a problem as some culture directly
clashes with the locals’ culture norms and values, but is still adapted by the locals
anyway. In result, the locals’ culture becomes more ‘westernized’, and the
original culture starts to be forgotten. This can be seen in how younger
generation have no idea in what is the essence of their own original culture, and
is more comfortable following what is from foreign country. This shows how the
original culture is no longer passed down to the next generation, and this can
result in the original culture being forgotten forever. The local culture usually is
the charm to the tourists who want to learn more about it, so Lake Toba will lose
its asset when its culture itself is disappearing. Moreover, to cater to specific
 tourists’ demand, club and illegal prostitution will start to be created. Just
because it brings in a lot of income, it does not mean the government can turn a
blind eye to this situation. This will degrade not only the culture norms and
values more, but also the quality of life of the people. One thing the government
can do is to make people realize back their original culture’s norms and values.
This can be through education of the importance of upholding their culture which
can be done in several ways. It is important to teach them these from a young age,
so that they have a better understanding and have pride towards their own culture.
But it is important to also teach them that this does not mean the whole
community must reject the foreign culture and become unwelcoming towards
them. In such modern era, it is important to be open-minded toward differences,
but does not mean they must accept everything a well. It is important to know
which one is good or bad to be applied to their lives. Government must take the
vital role to make them realize of this as the topic of culture can be controversial
sometimes. Then, government should also take an action toward the illegal
brothels that are created secretly. They must act according to the rule properly for
the sake of the people involved in it. To improve such situation, the government
must be able to create more job opportunities and provide the basic education so
that people do not need to resort to such method to earn a living. It is important
to improve the quality of lives of the people living there, because it will be a
good image to the potential tourists. Besides, if people living in Lake Toba have
a good standard of living, their attitude toward the tourism industry will also be
more supportive as they have been more educated about it. This can help the
government when they want to launch more development since the whole local
community is more understanding and supportive.
 The Longevity of Tourism
Indonesian government has put their attention and funds of tourism industry on
Lake Toba in recent years. Lake Toba has the potential to be a tourist magnet
from its natural environment appeal. However, there are plenty big and small
problems that keep on preventing it to be more famous. It starts from lack of
investors and loose management of rules that involve cleanliness, illegal business
and standard of attraction procedures. This gives impacts toward its image in the
international world which makes Lake Toba lose its own appeal. As the
government aim for local and international’s popularity for the development of
tourism industry in Lake Toba, something must be done or else Lake Toba will
lose its potential customers. If this does happen, the government will not be able
to at least cover the fund they have put out to develop Lake Toba. And most
importantly, Lake Toba will not be able to use all of its efficiently and its tourism
industry will just be kept small to surrounding areas as it cannot compete with
competition from inside and outside of the country. If the industry becomes much
smaller, many people will lose their current job such as the big hotel’s staff or
even seller in souvenir shop. This will create another problem for the local
government as the number of unemployment will keep on rising. Since the
tourism industry has much potential to be bigger and benefit the locals and the
government, more efforts should be attempted to improve the current situation
before it becomes worse. Some efforts they could make are clearing up the place
from wastes and restore back the environment and ecology to its previous
condition. It will improve the nature if they do reforestation in several parts of
the area to keep the green environment. Ancient ruins and tombs that hold
historical values must be maintained since they can attract tourists, but also
because they hold importance to the area culture and history. But all in all, those
efforts would need more fund and the current economy situation might prove it
quite impossible to give more fund towards the tourism development in Lake
Toba. One way to solve it is to find investors that are willing to invest in the
project. If it can grab the attention of international private investors, then it can
also serve a good chance to promote the destination to other foreign country.
Another thing to solve is the image of safety of the attraction in Lake Toba. After
reforming, it will be more convincing to put a brand guarantee to convince
people of the safety. Promotion is also the key, so government can invest more in
international events to promote the appeal of Lake Toba since it is shown in front
of a lot of people. Another thing the government is encouraged is to involve the
locals more. The locals should have more awareness of their tourism industry
 status, and must be convinced that they play the key role of the success of the
tourism industry in the area. They must be encouraged to get in touch with each
other and be sure to welcome them. As the waste pollution is a big problem in the
area, the locals should also be educated thoroughly on how to avoid negative
environmental effects. One thing recommended is to focus on ecological tour.
This can only happened after the current problem has been solved, but there is a
possibility of success since Lake Toba holds vast amount of greenery and rare
wildlife which is currently on the trend f the tourism industry. In the end, the
longevity of the tourism in Lake Toba is in the hand of the government and also
the locals. If they want the tourism industry to last long and big, they should
solve these problems and focus on how to use all the Lake Toba has to offer to
make it more appealing.
4. Conclusion
The government of Indonesia has put their focus in developing the tourism industry in Lake
Toba in recent years. However, issues and challenges such as littering and waste removal,
social degradation and safety become big problems during its development. As destination
such as Lake Toba fits the current trend where people has interest in ecological tours and
destination which has rich culture and history, the government should put more efforts in
solving these problems that prevent its development. Some suggestions are to tighten the
rules, educate the people, appeal to investors and promote the appeal of Lake Toba more.
Lake Toba has huge potential to become an famous tourist destination intertionally, and if the
government is not quick enough in solving these issues, it will be too late before it can
restore the image in the eyes of international tourists. It is hoped that the tourism industry in
Lake Toba can last long and big so that the lives of the locals can be prosperous. To do so, it
is important that the government and locals work hand-in-hand to develop the tourism of
Lake Toba
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