Blending Culture Into Tourism

The relationship between culture and tourism has been acknowledged as a means to strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of a tourism destination. Based on this, tourism in Bali, which has a unique local genius culture known as Tri Hita Karana (THK) philosophy, puts an effort to blend THK with the concept of Community-Based Tourism (CBT) in every aspect of tourism. THK is defined as three harmonious relationships between humans and God (Parhyangan), humans and fellow-beings (Pawongan), and humans and the environment (Palemahan). The government in Bali supports a locality to be a tourism village with the purpose of improving the prosperity of its community. This paper attempts to answer the following: first, explore how does the blending of THK and CBT in a cultural village take place? second, how is the implementation of this blending in a cultural village? This research was undertaken in Pinge Cultural Village, located in Tabanan Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia using a qualitative research paradigm. Miles and Huberman method were applied for analyzing data. The finding revealed that the tour packages and tourism activities in Pinge have already blended culture (i.e. THK) with CBT. Maintaining Pinge’s natural beauty and the local culture, improving the welfare of the local community, and balancing THK become the underlying goals of the village’s tourism activities. The impact of the commercialization of culture in tourism is an interesting phenomenon for future research.