E-Journal of Tourism Vol.9. No.2. (2022): 235-243

The Assessment of Community Participation in The Development of Marine Tourism in the Spermonde Islands

Fajar Aditya Nugroho1*, Ginta Eldina2, Nino Wahyu Novanda 3, Nicola Tesalonika Br. Ginting3, Regita Dwi Putri3

1Postgraduate Student in Tourism Planning, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung 2Postgraduate Student in Strategic Marketing Communication, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta 3Bachelor of Tourism Destination Study, NHI Bandung Tourism Polytechnic

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24922/eot.v9i2.89175

Article Info

Submitted:

July 16th 2022

Accepted:

September 21th 2022

Published:

September 30th 2022


Abstract

As a type of mass tourism that continues to experience an increasing trend of market interest, marine tourism is a very prospective sector to be developed. Especially in its role to improve the welfare of the community in tourism destinations. This can be a solution for many areas that have marine tourism potential but the community is still not developed, such as the Spermonde Islands in Indonesia. By using quantitative descriptive research methods, measurable data in the form of public opinion on questions asked based on indicators collected, and the extent to which the Spermonde Islands community is involved in the development of marine tourism can be mapped. The results state that in general the people of the Spermonde Islands can be said to have participated in tourism activities even though they are still at a lower level. So, in the future, several strategies are needed to increase community participation.

Keywords: marine tourism; community participation; community development.

INTRODUCTION

Background

Since ancient times, tourism has been synonymous with sea, sun, and sand (3s) which has brought marine & coastal tourist attractions into mass tourism that has developed massively (Marafa & Chau, 2016). In fact, a number of literatures note a significantly faster growth than tourism in general (Miller, 1990 in Orams, 2002). From this growth rate, it is clear that the archipelagic countries are boldly focusing their economy on the development of marine and coastal tourism (Orams, 2002).

However, among these countries, most of them still have not balanced the projected development of marine tourism with a good and targeted destination development plan so that the benefits they receive are not optimal (Pattulo, 1996 in Orams, 2002). This is also the case in many coastal and marine tourism destinations in Indonesia, including the Spermonde Islands.

The Spermonde Islands are a group of islands located in the southern part of the Makassar Strait and are one of the marine tourism destinations in South Sulawesi. It is recorded that more than 120 islands are included in the Spermonde islands that

offer various marine tourism activities such as snorkeling, diving, coral cultivation, and island-hopping. In the management and development of marine tourism in the Spermonde Islands, the Pangkep Regency Tourism Office launched a program called ”Gerbang Spermonde” which means ”The Gate of Spermonde”. This program is a community-based tourism development program, with the core of making Camba Cambang Island the entry gate of 9 surrounding islands which will be used as new priority of tourist destinations. The nine islands are Badi Island, Cangke Island, Kapoposang Island, Kulambing Island, Pajenekang Island, Sabutung Island, Salemo Island, Samatellu Island, and Saugi Island. In its preparation, the "Gate Spermonde" program was directed to be able to improve the welfare of the archipelagic community through active and supportive involvement.

However, according to data published by the BPS of South Sulawesi Province in 2014, the percentage of poor people in Pangkep Regency was the highest among other regencies in South Sulawesi Province, especially in the islands. The high poverty rate in Pangkep has started since 2010. This high poverty rate is certainly contrary to the concept by Spillane (1994) that the development of the tourism sector will be related to sociocultural, political and economic aspects which are directed to improve people's welfare. This is also not in accordance with the characteristics of marine tourism which is mass tourism which should be able to become the foundation of the community's economy (Darmadjati, 2007; Orams, 2002). This is also supported by Artha (2021) who explains that marine tourism is a potential form of activity included in the "clean industry". The implementation of marine tourism is successful if it fulfills various components, namely those related to the preservation of the natural environment, the welfare of the people who inhabit the area, the satisfaction of

visitors who enjoy it and the integration of the community with its development area. because of this, the poverty ratio experienced by the Pangkep community is not in accordance with the principles of tourism, especially marine tourism.

Judging from the problems above, that in developing tourism it is necessary to develop community-based tourism, so that people can feel the benefits of tourism development and become "hosts" in their own area. The form of tourism that involves the active participation of the community in its implementation is called Community-Based Tourism/ CBT (Hausler, 2000). It is necessary to examine the      extent      of      community

participation/involvement     in     the

development of marine tourism so that stakeholders can review the policies that have been set. Therefore, a research question arises, namely "How far does the community participate in tourism activities? and what are the implications?"

LITERATURE REVIEW

In general, participation is a symptom of democracy where people are included in the planning and implementation of everything that is centered on interests and also take responsibility according to their level of maturity and level of obligation (Wijaya, 2004). This indicates that in involving the community in a development, it is necessary to pay attention to the holisticity of each process so that the community is not only partially involved. Specifically referring to tourism activities, community participation in the tourism development process is expected to support and uphold local culture, traditions, knowledge and skills as well as create pride in the heritage of the community (Lacy, et al. 2002).

Talk about how to measure the level of community participation in the development of the tourism sector, there are several experts explaining the typology of community participation, so the e-ISSN 2407-392X. p-ISSN 2541-0857

paraphrasing technique is used to several theories, namely the theory from Cornwall (2008), Pretty (1995), and VeneKlasen (2002) and produces 7 basic principles in the level of community participation. The seven levels or typologies in the participation typology are as follows:

  • 1.    Token Participation or Manipulation Participation, ie the community sits on an official committee, but they are not elected and have no real power.

  • 2.    Passive Participation, Community participates as recipients of information. They were told what had been decided or what had happened.

  • 3.    Participation by     Consultation,

Community participates by consulting or by answering questions asked. Professionals are not obliged to pay attention to the public's point of view.

  • 4.    Participation by Material Incentive, Communities can participate by donating resources (eg labor), in exchange for food, cash or other material incentives. Communities provide resources, but are not involved in what decisions are made. They have no interest in things when the incentive ends. From this level, it is a level that can be called community participation, while the previous three levels cannot be called participation (VeneKlasen, 2002).

  • 5.    Functional      Participation,      the

community participates at the request of external institutions to fulfill predetermined objectives. There may be some joint decision making, but this usually only occurs after a major decision has been made by an external agency.

  • 6.    Interactive Participation, Community participates in joint analysis and development of action plans. Participation is seen as a right, not just a means to achieve project objectives. Since the group is involved in decision making, they have a stake in sustaining the project.

  • 7.    Self-mobilization, People participate by initiating actions independently of external agencies. They develop contacts with external agencies for the resources and technical advice they need, but control how resources are used. Governments and NGOs sometimes provide support for self-mobilization.

METHODS

In this research, descriptive research is used with a quantitative approach. Descriptive research, namely, research conducted to determine the value of independent variables, either one or more variables (independent) without making comparisons, or connecting with other variables (Arikunto, 2006; Sugiyono, 2014). Descriptive research in this study is intended to obtain an overview of the extent of community participation in marine tourism management in the Spermonde Islands, South Sulawesi through the collection of quantitative homogeneous data which in the end can represent the overall level of community participation from the perspective of the community itself.

In this study, the main data collection was carried out through the distribution of questionnaires. The questionnaire used is a questionnaire with ordinal data type and Likert answer scale. And the analytical tool used is SPSS. The population in this study were all people on Badi Island, Saugi Island and Samatellu Pedda Island. The samples taken were some people on Badi Island, Saugi Island and Samatellu Pedda Island, using a nonprobability sampling technique, namely a sampling technique that does not provide the same opportunity/ opportunity for each element or member of the population to be selected as samples (Sugiyono, 2014). The samples taken were 227 residents, with the following details, 47 residents of Saugi Island, 156 residents of Badi Island, and 24 residents of Samatellu Pedda Island.

Table 1. Use of Likert Scale

Code

Meaning

Score

STS

Very Disagree

1

TS

Disagree

2

N

Neutral

3

S

Agree

4

SS

Very Agree

5

Source: Processing Result, 2022.

From all valid data that has been obtained, the data is processed using descriptive statistical techniques with the help of the SPSS application. Previously, the ordinal data obtained from the questionnaire with a Likert scale was converted into interval data using the Method of Successive Interval (MSI) in the Microsoft Excel application to make it easier to map into

classes that would represent the seven levels of community participation. The processing of the questionnaire data is through making answer intervals from all the collected data and classifying them into 7 classes from the lowest to the top in accordance with the principle of community participation. In addition, the main data is also supported by secondary data obtained through interviews with stakeholders, as well as literature studies.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Result

The following is a table of primary data processing results that have been distributed to 227 respondents and analyzed through SPSS.

Table 2. Data Processing Results

Data Class

4-48    49-53    54-58

59-63      64-68       69-73       74-78

Category      Token/  Passive  Particip

Manip  Particip   ation

ulation    ation      by

Partici             Consult

pation              ation

Participat  Functional   Interactive     Self-   TOTAL

ion by    Participati   Participati   Mobiliza

Material       on          on         tion

Incentive

Frequency         8      34      67

78          30           7         3    227

Valid             3.5      14.6     29.6

Percentation

34.5         13.3          3.1         1.3     100

Source: Processing result, 2022

The data above shows that the overall data collected from the respondents is valid and meets the requirements for further analysis. Based on the table above, we can see that the people of the Spermonde Islands mostly occupy the 4th level of participation out of a total of 7 levels, namely at the Participation by Material Incentive level, with the accumulated results of 78 respondents from a total of 227 respondents or 34.4%. However, the distribution of data is still mostly at the lower participation level, while at the upper participation level the figures tend to be small, even at the highest level (Self-mobilization) the percentage is

only 1.3% or only 3 of the total 227 respondents.

Discussion

Of the seven levels of community participation according to Cornwall (2008), Pretty (1995), and VeneKlasen (2002), it was found that the community occupies each level. In other words, the forms of community participation that occur in the Spermonde Islands vary and meet the overall level of community participation. From the primary and secondary data that we found while in the field, it can be concluded that:

The actual condition of community participation in marine tourism activities in the Spermonde Islands is quite good.

This is based on the findings and processing of research data, both primary and secondary, with the fact that there are forms of participation that meet each level of participation concepts. In more detail, the actual form of participation of the Spermonde Islands community at each level is as follows:

Figure 1. Mapping of Respondents Based on Level of Participation

(Source: Processing Result, 2022)

  • a.    Token / Manipulation Participation

Communities included in this level are the Spermonde Islands community, most of whom work as fishermen where they go to sea all day at night, while during the day they are active at home. Some of the people have been invited or invited to discuss several times by the Pangkep Regional    Government,    especially

Disparbud, to discuss the development of marine tourism, but only some people are randomly selected without any particular consideration, even though most fishermen do not have productive activities during the day.

In fact, all of the communities we made as respondents admitted that they did not mind being invited to participate in marine tourism activities, even some residents hoped that the village government and local governments would invite all residents and not appoint the same number of residents to participate in marine tourism activities. This is a good http://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/eot

opportunity, considering that in general the main obstacle in involving the community to participate in a program is the lack of self-awareness (Gamble in Weil, 2013). with the awareness that has emerged, the authorities can take advantage of it by involving the community optimally.

  • b.    Passive Participation

At this level, some of the people of the Spermonde Islands have been tasked with doing certain things related to the development of marine tourism in the Spermonde Islands. One of them is the appointment of several residents as administrators of Pokdarwis (Tourism Awareness Groups) on each island. However, based on the results of our interviews with resource persons in the Spermonde     Islands,     Pokdarwis'

performance is considered not optimal. In addition, the people who are at this level are some residents who are given the mandate to entertain tourists who come, such as providing their homes as lodging and providing catering needs for tourists, although until now only certain residents have received this mandate. Most of the residents who received the mandate were residents who had close relationships (such as relatives and neighbors) with the local village apparatus.

  • c.    Participation by Consultation

The people of the Spermonde Islands belonging to this level of participation are dominated by local community leaders. This is done on the assumption that the village government hopes that by inviting these community leaders they can represent the entire community and the results of the meeting will be conveyed to the entire community. According to the people who became respondents, they stated that they knew that the community leaders held a meeting at the  village  office regarding the

discussion of marine tourism, only that the results  of the  meeting were never

distributed to the community so that the

community never gave feedback to the government. In the end, all kinds of policies related to marine tourism originating from local and village governments and the community did not have the opportunity to voice their aspirations. One example is the Spermonde Gate program, which in practice is rarely known by the people of the Spermonde Islands.

  • d.    Participation by Material Incentive

It is at this level that it can be said to be a form of participation according to Pretty and Cornwall's statement. This is because at this level the new community is active and carries out activities to participate in developing tourism activities in their area, especially in donating workers. In accordance with the results of the questionnaire questionnaire data, in general the people of the Spermonde Islands belong to this level with a percentage of 34.4%, which means that the level of participation of the people of the Spermonde Islands is good. Actually, the form of community participation at this level gets the task/responsibility from Disparbud as the manager of the islands in the Spermonde Islands.

  • e.    Functional Participation

As many as 30 respondents that we studied were included in this level of participation. Communities at this level participate in the development of marine tourism in the Spermonde Islands at the invitation/ envoy from other parties in the management of the Spermonde Islands such as CV. Mars on Badi Island and the community empowerment group called “Sekolah Perempuan” on Saugi Island and Samatellu Pedda Island. The existence of CV. Mars actually has a goal to implement a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program by empowering the community, especially on Badi Island and its surroundings.

CV. Mars focuses on training residents in seahorse cultivation and coral http://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/eot

reef rehabilitation. In other side, Sekolah Perempuan Group has a program that focuses on teaching mothers and postmarried women to read, write and count (calistung). This was done considering the low level of public education in the Spermonde Islands. The existence of these educational programs is certainly a good form of support in tourism development, especially marine tourism, because it is undeniable that the main obstacle in involving the community in various development programs is the low level of public education, both formal and nonformal (Reisch in Weil, 2013).

  • f.    Interactive Participation

At this 6th level, we only met 7 respondents out of a total of 227 respondents that we studied. This is because there is still a lack of awareness of the people of the Spermonde Islands towards the importance of tourism activities, especially marine tourism and how marine tourism can improve the quality of life of the community. Most of the people we studied still depend on fishing for their livelihoods even though they have the desire to join in tourism development. They claim to want to join in marine tourism activities if there is an invitation / invitation to join. However, until now there has been no invitation to them to join / participate in the implementation of marine tourism.

As for the 7 respondents who we classified at this level, they have considered that it is appropriate for them to join in marine tourism activities. They already have an awareness that marine tourism activities can have a positive impact on their daily lives, especially in terms of the economy.

  • g.    Self – Mobilization

This level is the highest level in the participation typology. Broadly speaking, the characteristic of the community at this level is that they already have full power over the management and development of

tourism in their area. Meanwhile, the government and other parties only act as facilitators and counselors.

In the Spermonde Islands itself, there are only 3 respondents out of a total of 227 respondents who are at this level. This indicates that in order to achieve a condition where the people of the Spermonde Islands can independently manage marine tourism in their area, it is necessary to increase other communities, especially those at lower levels. This is also in line with what was stated by Tosun (2011) that the highest indicator of community participation in tourism activities is when the community can independently manage tourism, starting from the planning, implementation, evaluation, and program development stages. With the existence of a community that can independently manage tourism in their area, the implementation of the program will be maximized and the rate of tourism growth will occur rapidly.

Community participation in the Spermonde Islands is at the Participation by Material Incentive level.

In accordance with the concept of a typology of community participation according to Cornwall which states that ".....It is very common to see this called participation, yet people have no stake in prolonging practices when the incentives end (Participation by Material Incentive)." (Cornwall, 2008) so that it can be concluded that the fourth and subsequent levels can be said to be participation, while the first to third levels have not been said to be participation.

As described in the findings of the research data, we can conclude that in general the people of the Spermonde Islands belong to the fourth level of participation (Participation by Material Incentive) or a form of participation where the community participates in marine tourism activities by donating labor, and they expect reciprocity. materially such as salary/wages, food, etc.

Most of the people of the Spermonde Islands, Pangkep Regency have participated in marine tourism activities. This statement can be seen from the percentage of people who are at the fourth level (Participation by Material Incentive), the fifth level (Functional Participation), the sixth level (Interactive Participation), and the seventh level or the last level (Self Mobilization) which is 52%. So, if we refer to the Cornwall concept, it can be said that the Spermonde Islands Community has participated in marine tourism activities in their area.

However, despite the participation rate of 52%, what is noteworthy is that the percentage with large numbers is still at levels 3 and 4 which indicates that although 52% have participated, the form of participation that has occurred has not been as expected where the two highest levels (level to -6 and 7) actually have the smallest percentage. Another note obtained is that only certain communities participate and receive incentives from tourism activities, namely only residents who have close relationships with village government officials. This indicates that community involvement in general has not been fully facilitated by stakeholders.

CONCLUSION

From the results of the research data analysis that has been carried out, conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that The Pangkep Regency Government through the Tourism Office is developing tourism in the Spermonde Islands by launching a community-based tourism program, namely the 'Gerbang Spermonde.' In this program, it is planned to make 9 islands in the Spermonde Islands a tourist attraction, with Camba Cambang Island as the entry gate. This research identified how community participation in tourism development is under the auspices of the 'Gerbang Spermonde' program. Identification was carried out based on the theory and concept of the level of participation by e-ISSN 2407-392X. p-ISSN 2541-0857

theories from Cornwall (2008), Pretty (1995), and VeneKlasen (2002) to find out at what level of community participation in the Spermonde Islands. Based on the results of primary data analysis, it can be concluded that the actual condition of community participation in the Spermonde Islands has met the seven levels according to the concept. The results of the SPSS analysis output indicate that most of the research respondents are at level 4 with a percentage of the total population of 34.4%. In other words, the people of the Spermonde Islands participate in marine tourism activities in their area at the 4th level or Participation by Material Incentive, with the condition of the people who have participated by being dive guides, eating places and homestay businesses, and making souvenirs. Overall, the people of the Spermonde Islands have participated in marine tourism activities in their area.

However, regardless of the condition of the community that can be declared as participating, there are some notes that are underlined and produce some suggestions. The suggestions made include:

  • 1.    Community involvement at the top level (Functional Participation, Interactive Participation, and SelfMobilization) needs to be emphasized more deeply and needs to be facilitated by stakeholders, especially the government. In fact, from the results of field studies conducted, the willingness of the community to be further involved, such as in planning as well as in decision-making and evaluation is quite high. especially with the fact that there are some people who have a supportive background.

  • 2.    There is a need for training and socialization of better tourism skills, so that more people have mastered tourism knowledge and skills which they can use as capital to actively participate in tourism activities.

Stakeholders need to diversify marine tourism activities and map out the communities that can be involved, so that tourists who come can choose various tourism activities, which has implications for increased length of visit.

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