Tourism sustainability is a big problem in the development of marine tourism in Indonesia

Abstract

In the last two decades, marine tourism has developed very rapidly in Indonesia. The number of tourist visits continues to increase in almost all marine tourism destinations. This is because the objects of marine tourism attraction are widespread in Indonesia and varied. For example, for manta ray diving, according to 2015 Manta Watch data, although there are more Manta Pari spots in the Maldives, the chances of encountering these protected biota are three times higher in Komodo National Park, West Manggarai Regency. To achieve the target of 20 million foreign tourists, the government has opened ten new marine tourism destinations. But the growth of marine tourism also causes damage to destinations, such as significant damage to coral reef ecosystems, the disappearance of mola fish (Mola mola) and whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) from destinations due to booming tourist visits. The results of the author’s research of 2015 showed a decrease in hard coral cover from 58% (good category) to 20% (bad category) within 12 years in several dive spots located within the tourism zone in Wakatobi National Park. On the other hand, the contribution of the tourism sector to GDP is only 10.4% with the contribution from the marine tourism sector only around 10%. Another problem is that some districts, such as Wakatobi Regency, which initially made the marine tourism sector a leading one for regional development, are now turning to the fisheries sector as their leading sector. One of the reasons is the low regional income from the marine tourism sector.

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