ANALISIS PARTISIPASI MASYARAKAT DALAM PENINGKATAN DAYA SAING PARIWISATA DI KAWASAN GEOPARK DANAU TOBA

Abstract

Cultural and natural heritage is highly selling travel aspect at this time. North Suma-tra has the sublime cultural heritage that located on the exotic geographic location that remembered the glory in the pre-reform. Unfortunately, this potential is current-ly not followed by proper management. This condition becomes attractive in line with the concept of community-based tourism which puts people at key positions in the management of attraction. Moreover, the positive signals that have delivered the president to make the region of Toba lake became "The Monaco of Asia" could have formed their expectations of tourism market in North Sumatra. The general objective of this research are: 1) to map the perception of community tourism related tourism area of Lake Toba, and 2) to identify the variations of perception based on gender and education level. This research was conducted by survey and in-depth interviews in five regions around Lake Toba with high tourist traffic by using purposive sam-pling. Respondents who get through the survey was 212 respondents. Further analy-sis of data obtained through descriptive statistics and cross tabulation. In depth inter-views were conducted at community leaders, local government representatives, and stakeholders in tourism around Lake Toba. This study is exploratory the variables that are considered important to the community that has implications for local gov-ernance recommendations of Lake Toba. The findings of the study recommends that the government, communities, and stakeholders to be more aware and know the strategies, performance, and benefits to be gained through environmental manage-ment of the tourist area of Lake Toba. That awareness will have implications for the ability of people creating an enjoyable tourism experience for Lake Toba tourists.