International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

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 Volume 12, Issue 11 (November 2025), Pages: 249-257

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 Original Research Paper

The role of digital innovation, local wisdom, and human resources in developing Gayo coffee educational tourism in Takengon, Indonesia

 Author(s): 

 Adelina Lubis 1, *, Muhammad Akbar Siregar 2, Rizki Muliono 3, Ihsan Effendi 4, Dhian Rosalina 5

 Affiliation(s):

  1Master Program of Management Study Program, Universitas Medan Area, Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
  2Master of Agribusiness Study Program, Universitas Medan Area, Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
  3Informatics Engineering Study, Universitas Medan Area, Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
  4Master of Agribusiness Study Program, Universitas Medan Area, Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
  5Management Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Samudra, Aceh, Indonesia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1215-1896

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2025.11.023

 Abstract

The aim of this study is to integrate three strategic dimensions, namely digital innovation, local wisdom, and human resource quality, into the development of educational tourism. The research introduces a new perspective by examining eco-educational tourism in the organic Gayo coffee farming sector in Indonesia. Data were obtained from 150 respondents, including eco-tourism actors and managers, coffee farmers, tourism-based micro, small, and medium enterprises, visitors of educational coffee tourism, and other tourism stakeholders. The findings show that tourist attractions, digital innovation, and human resource quality significantly contribute to the development of educational tourism. However, digital innovation and tourist attractions are not yet fully optimized to enhance destination attractiveness. Tourist attractions mediate the relationship between human resource quality and educational tourism development, but they do not mediate the relationships involving digital innovation or local wisdom. In general, agricultural educational tourism can be applied to various types of commodities. Nevertheless, tourism operators should carefully integrate local wisdom into the design of tourist attractions to ensure cultural authenticity and strengthen visitor engagement.

 © 2025 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Educational tourism, Digital innovation, Local wisdom, Human resources, Coffee farming

 Article history

 Received 26 June 2025, Received in revised form 28 October 2025, Accepted 4 November 2025

 Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Direktorat Penelitian dan Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat (DPPM) Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi, Sains, dan Teknologi (Kemdiktisaintek) Republic of Indonesia, for providing financial support through the Research and Innovation Grant Program (Kemdikti Saintek), which made this study possible. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards for research involving human participants. All participants were informed about the purpose of the study and voluntarily agreed to participate. No identifying personal data was collected, and all responses were kept confidential and used solely for research purposes.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Lubis A, Siregar MA, Muliono R, Effendi I, and Rosalina D (2025). The role of digital innovation, local wisdom, and human resources in developing Gayo coffee educational tourism in Takengon, Indonesia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 12(11): 249-257

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 Figures

  Fig. 1

 Tables

  Table 1  Table 2  Table 3  

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