Angeline Louisabethania and Nur Puji Lestari, students of the Tourism Master Program (MKP) at the Graduate School (SPs) of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Class of 2024, participated in the International Conference on Hospitality and Tourism Management (ICOHT) 2025.
The event was held at the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in two days from Friday, July 25th to Saturday, July 26th 2025.
Angeline presented a paper titled “Evaluation of the Success of Rejowinangun Tourism Village as a Sustainable Tourism Village in 2024.” The research, co-authored with Lalu Abdul Azus and Baiq Ajeng Almira Rahmadhani—also students of the 2024 the Tourism Master Program (MKP) —discusses the efforts and strategies implemented by the Rejowinangun Tourism Village management to achieve recognition as a sustainable tourism village. The sustainability aspects including sustainable management, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions.
Meanwhile, Nur Puji Lestari presented a paper titled “Preserving the Authenticity of Rural Infrastructure in Sustainable Tourism Development,” co-authored with Adisti Yolanda Kusnadi and Mutia Nurul Makhfirah, who are also Master students in the same cohort. This paper addresses the rapid development of tourism villages in Indonesia and its impact on the authenticity of rural infrastructure. It focuses on the tension between the economic benefits brought by tourism and the threat of modernization to the original character of villages. The study explores the relationship between rural tourism, cultural heritage, and sustainable infrastructure.
ICOHT 2025 was organized by The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM), the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture Malaysia, and Tourism Malaysia. The conference was attended by over 200 delegates from more than 25 countries, in-person and virtually.
Participating countries are Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Macao, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
The keynote speaker at ICOHT 2025 was Prof. Emeritus Dr. Jafar Jafari, often referred to as The Father of Tourism, who delivered a keynote titled “Paradigm Shift in Hospitality and Tourism Education: Bridging Theory and Practice.”
Various international speakers also presented on a range of topics, including the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the importance of international accreditation and global rankings in the hospitality and tourism industry, as well as a special session on publishing in Scopus-indexed journals and discussions about the future of tourism up to 2050.
The conference theme “Sustainable Tourism: Redefining the Tourism Industry Towards a Sustainable Future,” the event also provided an important opportunity for academics, researchers, industry professionals, and practitioners to actively engage in discussions on building a more sustainable and innovative tourism future.
Angeline and Nur Puji, as tourism students, aim to contribute to strengthening Indonesia position in the global tourism sector, particularly in developing tourism models rooted in local identity, participatory approaches, and sustainability. This conference also served as a vital learning platform to build a strong academic foundation, as future researchers and policymakers in the tourism sector. Both hope to continue building international academic networks, absorb new insights on destination management and community engagement, and integrate them into the development of future studies and research.
This initiative aligns with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being, Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Writers: Angeline, Nur Puji
Editor: Arni Wistriatun