SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE THROUGH DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL TOURISM POTENTIAL

Abstract

The village has been categorized as a suburb. Therefore, rural development for the villages was not the focal point. Village conditions increasingly lagged behind urban areas, although the villages generally have natural resources and social potential as development capital. Decentralization, development of information technology, means of transportation, the government's efforts to build on rural area, as well as tourism as a driver of the economy, make the villages begin to empower themselves. Kampung Mangarang, Sumberarum Village, District Songgon, in Banyuwangi is developing natural tourist destinations called "Telunjuk Raung". It is located in the area of “Tirta Harapan Plantations” on the slopes of Mount Raung. Through the community initiatives, the potential of natural tourism was developed to finance the development in the area. The plantation gives management rights to the community to manage the tourism destination until targeted development fund requirements are met. The community manages the site voluntarily, while infrastructure and tourism facilities provided by the plantation. The income resulted from the activities become the source of fund to finance the development and empowerment in the area. Why and how this community development initiative carried out is the focus in this study. Appraisal method used here is descriptive qualitative. Observation and in-depth interviews conducted with the stakeholders. It was concluded that this model of cooperation occurs because both parties have complementary interests. Yet this model is still in early stages and is still in process. If this development model is successful, it can be used as an alternative model development of the rural areas, which is often neglected by the central government policy as in many cases are urban-bias.

Keywords: Natural tourism potential, community initiative, alternative development model, sub-urban area, public-private collaboration.