A STUDY OF GEOTOURISM IMPLEMENTATION IN DEVELOPING BATUR CALDERA AREA AS A MEMBER OF UNESCO GLOBAL GEOPARKS NETWORK

• Main Author: Novie Damayanti, Sarita
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Geografi dan perjalanan
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/40704
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Geopark is defined as an area that developed with an integrated concept of geodiversity and culture protection, education, and sustainable local economic development. Geotourism development in Batur Global Geopark, as an implementation of geopark, is one of efforts to revitalize the condition of tourism in Kintamani and improve the regional competitiveness. In order to stimulate the development of the area, geotourism has to apply certain elements and elaborated with tourism components, which include tourist attraction, environmental conservation, demands, impacts to local people, and institutions. Since Batur Caldera was recognized as a member of Global Geoparks Network, there are some inconsistencies between geotourism concept and the implementation, as there is still a lack of local initiatives, lack of public education, and excavation (type-C mining) problems. This study aims to conduct a study of the implementation of geotourism in the development of Batur Caldera Area as a Global Geopark, so that in the future all stakeholders involved can make the development strategies and regulations in accordance to the specific issues of the area. On top of that, tourism as a multi-stakeholder sector ideally should be able to accommodate the needs of all stakeholder in its planning process. Therefore, the preferences of all stakeholder that divided into three groups (the government, the community/ local working group, and experts) will be involved to find which elements that is the most significant to be handled based on different perspectives. To achieve the research objectives, the approach of this study is based on rationalistic paradigm and uses qualitative research methods. The descriptive analysis as the first step of this study is used to identify strategic issues of geotourism development, by analyzing its implementation from the masterplan and the existing condition of Batur Global Geopark. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) also used in order to find the most significant geotourism elements that needs to be handled based on all three stakeholder groups’ preferences. The last step is to make prioritized development strategies recommendation with descriptive analysi method based on the previous analyzes, which is expected to become some good input for geotourism development of Batur Global Geopark in the future. iv Study findings indicate that geotourism development in Batur Global Geopark by far tends to be physical development oriented, in line with policies and development programs contained in the masterplan. On the other hand, the main problem is the lack of optimal governance system, thus impacting the inconsistency of geotourism implementation in the development of Batur Global Geopark. This is also indicated by the AHP results of local working groups and experts who emphasize that institutional elements should be a top priority to optimize geotourism implementation. Nevertheless, all stakeholder groups actually agree that geotourism development in Batur Global Geopark should provide significant and visible economic benefits to the community, so that in the future the local community can become the main actors of regional tourism development. To achieve these goals, in contrast to the other stakeholder groups, the government tends to focus on developing geotourism attraction, facilities, and other physical elements with the aim of increasing the number and length of stay of tourists, thereby generating economic benefits for the community both directly and indirectly. The proposed development strategies to address the challenge in geotourism development of Batur Caldera is then grouped into two aspects, namely developing the tourism institutions and developing the tourism destination. The recommended strategies for institutional development include: establishing Batur Global Geopark management board, planning institutional schemes on the development and management of Batur Global Geopark, as well as increasing local community participation. Meanwhile, the proposed strategies for destination development include: geotourism attraction diversification, increasing the quality of accessibility, and the development of primary tourism facilities such as accommodation and food services.