Community participation in creating sustainable community-based tourism

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the world. However, the development of tourism in various regions does not necessarily guarantee the welfare of the local community of the tourist destinations. Moreover, there is an inevitable correlation between the rapid growth of tourism and large-scale negative impacts. In promoting sustainable tourism development, national and local government need to pay attention to environmental and cultural preservation. There is also a need to prioritize the interests of local communities to foster a sustainable community-based tourism (CBT). This study analyzes the question of community participation in realizing sustainable CBT in Karimunjawa, an archipelago of 27 islands in the Java Sea. Primary and secondary data were collected with snowball sampling selection techniques, using participatory observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis was conducted using the interactive analysis method of data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results show that the typology of community participation in realizing sustainable CBT in Karimunjawa can be classified as the Spontaneous-Induced Participation type-seen from the planning, implementation, and supervision stages. The participation of the Karimunjawa community is the result of the interaction between spontaneous and induced participation. In some of its dimensions, participation is active and bottom-up, while, in others, participation is still top-down and passive. In this respect, we argue that sustainable tourism development will succeed only if spontaneous participation is enhanced. Since the research is limited to the Karimunjawa area, its results cannot be generalized to others. Any further studies need to conduct research on broader or different areas, so that a wider range of similarities and differences can be revealed and analyzed. In this way, it should be possible to identify the characteristics of successful community participation for sustainable tourism development.