Developing mangrove ecotourism in Nusa Penida Sacred Island, Bali, Indonesia

One of the famous tourism sites in Bali Province Indonesia is Nusa Penida Island. Located in the eastern part of the Bali, the small island is very famous tourist destination attracting more than two hundred thousand people per year. Nusa Penida, however, is not only designated as tourist destination but also designated as conservation buffer zone for the island of Bali. Therefore, balancing economic benefits of tourism and conservation function of the island is a challenging issue in the tourism management of the small island. This study attempts to address such an issue by analyzing the potential of mangrove forest in the island as sacred ecotourism destination. The tourist suitability index and carrying capacity of mangrove forest were carried to assess the potential development of the area and developing sustainable strategies for mangrove ecotourism management in Nusa Penida Sacred Island. By doing so, this study begins with determining carrying capacity of the mangrove ecotourism, as well as the ecological suitability of the mangrove ecosystem for tourism. In addition, SWOT analysis was conducted to analysis development strategies of the ecotourism in the area. The results showed that conformity index for tourism (CTI) is 74.36 percent, implying that the mangrove forest area in Nusa Penida Island is appropriate to be developed as an ecotourism site. The carrying capacity of the mangrove tour route is calculated at 360 tourist per day. Based on SWOT analysis, the average of total IFAS and EFAS analysis score is 2.89 and 3.09, respectively, with internal external matrix is witin the second quadrant of SWOT matrix. Several strategies recommendation are proposed. These include improving tourist infrasructure, stakeholder cooperation, improving tourist services, promoting nusa penida sacred ecotourism to public and tourists, supervising tourist activities, and carrying out conservation-based tourist activities.