PENILAIAN DAYA DUKUNG UNTUK PENGEMBANGAN EKOWISATA DI TAMAN WISATA ALAM KERANDANGAN

The development of tourism activities in Taman Wisata Alam Krandangan (TWAK) has shown an escalating trend with 33% visits increase in a period of 2010-2014. The increasing number of visits is potential to promote environmental damage. Therefore, to create a function balance between the area conservation and it’s utilization as a tourism destination, then an assessment study on the tourism carrying capacity is of high importance. This research aimed to analyze tourism carrying capacity based on the environment biophysical aspects as well as the management capacity in TWAK. Assessments method employed was a carrying capacity assessment developed by Cifuentes (1992). The concepts of this carrying capacity assessment considered physical, biological, and management conditions in determining the maximum number of visitors and was divided into three levels i.e. Physical Carrying Capacity (PCC), Real Carrying Capacity (RCC) and Effective Carrying Capacity (ECC). The assessment of carrying capacity was performed in 4 tourism area of TWAK i.e. recreational area, observation area, camping area and hiking tracks. The calculation results showed the physical carrying capacity (PCC) of TWAK was 1,406 visitors per day. This value implies the number of visitors that physically can be contained in every group of tourism area. Physical carrying capacity could not consider the biophysical factors of the area. Hence, this value cannot be utilized as a reference in visitor management. Based on the calculation result of the real carrying capacity, the maximum number of visitors to be allowed to visit TWAK is 186 people per day. An effective carrying capacity is 93 visitors per day.