Community Participation in Nature Tourism Development: Lessons From Pindul Cave in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRAKPartisipasi masyarakat lokal sangat penting untuk pengembangan pariwisata, terutama di destinasi wisata alam seperti Gua Pindul di Kabupaten Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta. Selain berkontribusi terhadap keberlanjutan wisata alam itu sendiri, partisipasi masyarakat dapat memberdayakan masyarakat setempat karena mereka biasanya mendapat manfaat dari kegiatan pariwisata yang berjalan di wilayah mereka. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi tingkat partisipasi masyarakat dalam pengembangan pariwisata berbasis alam dan hambatan-hambatan terhadap partisipasi masyarakat. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif kuantitatif. Data dikumpulkan melalui penyebaran kuesioner kepada 60 warga yang dipilih secara acak (random sampling) serta melalui wawancara dengan warga dan pengelola wisata. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa rata-rata tingkat partisipasi masyarakat adalah tinggi dalam hal usia, jenis kelamin, pekerjaan, pendapatan, dan latar belakang pendidikan masyarakat. Kan tetepi, tingkat partisipasi masyarakat masih rendah dalam tahap evaluasi sehingga dibutuhkan sebuah monitoring team agar partisipasi dapat meningkat terutama dalam hal transparasi keuangan. Selain itu, masyarakat setempat masih menghadapi beberapa hambatan dalam berpartisipasi, yaitu ketidaktahuan tentang dunia pariwisata, kemiskinan, kebijakan manajemen, dan kurangnya kemampuan berbahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, dibutuhkan program-program advokasi dari para pemangku kepentingan yang ada untuk meminimalisasi masalah-masalah tersebut. ABSTRACTLocal community's participation is essential for a tourism development, especially in a nature tourism destination like Pindul Cave in Gunungkidul Regency, Yogyakarta. In addition to contributing to the sustainability of the nature tourism itself, community participation can empower the local community since they are usually benefited from the tourism activities running in their area. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the level of community participation in nature-based tourism development and barriers to the community participation. This study employed a descriptive quantitative approach. The data was collected by randomly distributing questionnaires to 60 residents and conducting interviews with the locals and village tourism managers. The results suggested that the level of community participation is averagely high in terms of age, gender, job, income, and education. Nevertheless, their participation level is low in the evaluation so there should be a monitoring team to handle this issue. In addition, the local community still faces several barriers to participation, including incompetency of tourism industry, poverty, management's policy, and lack of ability to speak English. Therefore, there should be advocating programs to overcome those problems.

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