Impact of Tourism Development on Physical, Social and Economic Aspects in Batur Geopark Area

• Main Author: Harits Insan Kamil, Muhammad
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/37207
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Batur Geopark is the first international scale geopark in Indonesia whose inauguration is aimed at improving the rural economy through efforts to conserve geological and cultural heritage and utilizing geotourism activities. In its development process, Batur Geopark area still has several fundamental problem such as sand mining, lake – shallowing, tourist visits still concentrated in the restaurants area along the Panelokan path, and limited accessibility to geosite areas which became the focus of improvement of the area after its inauguration as a part of UNESCO Global Geopark Network. This study aims to examine changes and impacts of the tourism development on physical, social and economic aspects in the Batur Geopark area. This study approach uses descriptive qualitative analysis. Interview sample are determined by using the purposive sampling which produce 21 key informants who are representations of all stakeholders that are related to tourism development in Batur Geopark areas such as local and provincial government, academic experts who are involved in Batur Geopark projects, community organizations, members of local working groups on each tourism clusters, community leaders, private and non – governmental organizations. The result of the study shows that the development of tourism in the Batur Geopark has positive and negative impacts on physical, social and economic aspects. The positive impacts include increasing efforts to conserve natural resource from the governments and the community especially from the youth generation through the Geopark to School program, improved public and tourism facilities, growth of accommodation and restaurants on the Batur Lake area which has the effects of increased demand for agricultural products and provides employment both on the formal and informal sectors and growth of micro – small – medium enterprises that produce unique geo - products. On the other hand, tourism development on the Batur Geopark area also has negative impacts including lake – shallowing, decreasing in water quality caused by the accumulation of household waste, agriculture, fisheries, and tourism sectors. The transitions of land functions into agricultural and commercial buildings has lead to the increased potential of landslides especially on high rainfall season. In addition, the emergence of social problems such as inter – group conflict and jealousy amongst social groups based on the uneven economic benefits from the tourism development of the Batur Geopark areas. The role of Local Working Groups (LWG) serves as a trigger for the community to develop and manage the geotourism attraction, while the order of tourism cluster on the area based on their ability to explore, develop and manage the geotourism potential attractiveness is 1). Abang Erawang Cluster; 2). Batur Kalanganyar Cluster; 3). Hulundanu Muncar Cluster; 4). Manuk Tarumenyan Cluster; and 5). Singa Mandawa Cluster.