Tour de Trash, Anti Mainstream Vacation in Bali

18 January 2023 - Regenerative Travel

BestHostels Indonesia in collaboration with the Merah Putih Hijau Foundation initiated the Tour De Trash event, which is an anti-mainstream holiday agenda to educate and inspire its clientele to participate in saving and preserving the environment. The Tour De Trash event took place in Gianyar, Wednesday (10/8/2022).

The event was inspired by the concept of regenerative travel /regenerative tourism. Although the term Regenerative is newly introduced, the concept of regenerative travel has actually been widely adopted by tourism stakeholders from various parts of the world.

Regenerative travel refers to the concept of a vacation in which tourists must also preserve the environment and local culture. Not only protecting the environment, this concept also invites the community to repair natural resources that have already been damaged.

“Tour De Trash concept itself is actually quite out of the box. Considering in general, tourism only shows beautiful and interesting places to visit. But this time, BestHostels Indonesia invites tour participants to visit locations that they never thought of as tourism spots in Bali,” explained Rahmadi Aditya Putra, founder of BestHostels Indonesia in a written statement.

The itinerary of Tour De Trash began with participants visiting Sanur Beach which was also the meeting point. The agenda continued with a visit to the Final Disposal Site (TPA) located in Temesi, Gianyar. At this location, tour participants were invited to see the final waste disposal process.

The value to be conveyed during a visit to the Temesi TPA is to encourage tour participants to start sorting waste at home. Because the waste that has been properly sorted will facilitate the work of the workers at the local TPA.

After learning about waste processing at the Temesi TPA, the tour participants continued to Gunung Kawi Temple, Tampak Siring. In this tourist destination, a joint learning agenda about history and culture was held, as well as an invitation to preserve historical sites.

Tour De Trash event ended with a visit to a Landfill (TPS) in Pejeng Village. Here, tour participants were invited to learn to sort organic and inorganic waste and played games with local people on a smaller scale. This visit to the Pejeng TPS is quite special because the Pejeng village is a pilot project village that is already able to educate its people to manage household waste.

Throughout the event, the participants were enthusiastic and actively participated in the Tour De Trash. Even though you had to feel the heat from time to time because the agenda was done outdoors, this does not dampen the interest of the participants.

“I think this tour has given a lot of meaning to my life. Like a complete package, you get insights, new friends, new knowledge, and travel too,” said Eshie Hikmha, one of the Tour De Trash participants.

A similar expression was also conveyed by Ahmad Wafi, another participant. According to him, this event not only adds insight but also a learning process about leadership. He got this impression after meeting Ibu Jero the head of the facility when he visited the Pejeng’s Landfill

In general, the participants of the Tour De Trash were a number of students from the Bali Polytechnic. However, there were also backpackers from Aceh. In order to enliven the event, several local influencers also joined. Among them are Natalie (@haynatss) and Kevin Torsten (@kevin_torsten).

After joining the Tour De Trash, the participants suggested the continuity of this event in the future. “Hopefully other friends can participate in this activity because it is very, very useful,” Natalie said after the event.

Continuing the success of this inaugural Tour De Trash event, BestHostels Indonesia plans to make a similar agenda periodically to speed up the education of Regenerative Culture in the Tourism Industry.