Perpustakaan Digital ITB

Batur Geopark is one of Indonesian geoparks that has been successfully accepted as one of UNESCO Global Geopark Network members in 2012. Located in Bali, one of Indonesian most popular tourism destinations, Batur Geopark becomes more popular and gives promising opportunity of growing economic activity especially tourism. As a protected area, as more people visit geopark area, there would be two impacts, the impact on environment and the quality of the visitor experience (Manning, 2007). Thus, this research was conducted to assess the impact of tourism activities especially from visitor’s perspective and expert judgment. One of the methods of impact assessment on environment is carrying capacity. The study revealed that tourism activity has reduced the total carrying capacity of Batur Geopark area by about 24% from its original level before tourism activity was initiated. It means that the total carrying capacity left for tourism activity in Batur Geopark was approximately 76% and was categorized as low impact (61-80%). Furthermore, there were some negative indicators that were notably reduced carrying capacity of Batur Geopark area and strongly indicate the negative impact of tourism activities, including: increasing number of building in areas with steep slope (A6), road damage due to vehicular traffic (A10), change in employment from agriculture to service industries (C4), over dependence on tourism (D4), and lack of tourism facilities (E3). Not only negative indicators, there were also some positive indicators that balanced the level of carrying capacity since it showed high score when large people agreed. These indicators included: increasing nature awareness (A9), establishment of geopark (A11), vegetation rehabilitation programs (A12), preservation of local art and culture (C5), contribution to government revenue (D1), contribution to regional development (D3), feeling of worthiness of the visit (E5), and willingness of the visitors to visit Batur Geopark again (E6).