Wellness Tourism Area Unit (WTAU) and its sustainable strategy: A lesson from Karo Regency, Indonesia

Karo Regency is one of the regencies included in the Lake Toba Super Priority Destination area which has a unit of the wellness tourism area. The tourism potential of Karo Regency is to have a business to attract wellness tourism and use spices, herbs, and plants that live in cool areas in Karo Regency which make it a cooking ingredient and health ingredient so that Karo Regency becomes an exotic place. However, due to the lack of contact with the wellness tourism area in Karo Regency, the interest of tourists to visit is lacking. The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the Wellness Tourism Area Unit (WTAU) in Karo District, to prioritize hierarchical strategies for the development of wellness tourism using qualitative research methods, and using A'WOT analysis in Karo District. The results of the study show that there are 3 sequences of priority areas, namely Tourism Area Unit 1 which offers traditional health activities combined with views of Lake Toba, Tourism Area Unit 2 offers various attractions of traditional health variations, nature, and modern relaxation facilities, Tourism Area Unit 3 tourist areas which can be explored. The results of the A'WOT analysis found several strategies that could be implemented to make Karo Regency more and more visited by domestic and foreign tourists such as conducting intensive promotions on the potential for traditional wellness tourism, supporting tourism products with a widespread promotion, especially for local handicrafts related to tourism. health, and creating integrated tour packages with other districts supporting Lake Toba DSP.