TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Going on a picnic and enjoying beautiful scenery has been one of the choices to get away from boring daily activities. However, the tourism spots are sometimes left dirty or damaged because of people’s negligence.
In response to that, Picnicholic, a picnic community, invites travelers to join the community that carries out the idea of 'green travel'. The community required its members to keep the recreation spots clean. For example, they bring their own water bottle to picnic.
"This is to reduce plastic bottle trashes," said Nur Rachmawati, better known as Atik, to Tempo last week. Atik and Yayuk Partowiredjo - or Nyanyu - are the founders of the Picnicholic community.
"The idea of green travel came out as we realized that if tourism sites is always being explored without considering the ugly side of littering, the sites will possibly lose their charms and benefits," said Nyanyu.
Every 10th of April to celebrate the Earth Day, Picnicholic arranged a trip to Thousand Islands to plant corals and mangrove. "Some of the money that paid by participants are used to buy at least one mangrove plant," she uttered.
The community also defined certain criteria for their travel destination. For example, they prefer to visit the not-too-crowded natural tourism sites and only visit the same site not more than three times to avoid any natural damages.
"People should change their view. Not just because a place is full with tourists then everyone wants to go there; the areas can be damaged eventually," said Atik.
CHETA NILAWATY
