PSEUDO EMPOWERMENT: TRACKING the LEVEL of COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT in the ECOTOURISM AREAS DEVELOPMENT in BANGKA ISLAND, INDONESIA

Abstract

The development of an ecotourism area needs local residents' involvement for the proper management integrating with the conditions of local wisdom, and also empowers the community. Bangka Island, located in South Sumatra, Indonesia, is used as an alternative post-mining area for the tourism sector and acts as an interesting locus to assess the level of community empowerment. This study aims to trace the working process of the empowerment dimension in the development of ecotourism in Bangka Island. The quantitative descriptive method was used to collect data from 260 respondents spread across various districts/cities in Bangka Island. The result showed that the level of empowerment in Bangka Island is still very limited, tends to be elitist, and lacks economic benefits. However, interestingly, the community supports future development despite not being certain of their involvement in the process. This study also reveals that empowerment is still pseudo in this community, which means that it has not touched all aspects of the essence of empowerment due to a sense of pride in their region's popularity.