COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM DEVELOPEMENT IN IMPROVING COMMUNITY WELFARE IN THE MANDALIKA SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE

Abstract

Community based tourism is developed based on the balance and conformity of stakeholder from multiple agencies including government, private entities and community. The development of community-based tourism, theoretically, emphasis on the tourism development ‘from community, by community, and for community’ in order to achieve the improvement of community welfare. Therefore, the development should be holistic both in the development of infrastructure in facilities and amenities and also the development of human resources through education, health support etc. The research aims to find direct connection (impact) of community-based tourism to community welfare in the Mandalika Special Economic Zone. This is associative research on community-based tourism employs primary and secondary data through observation, interview and in-depth interview. The data collection went through SEM-PLS, particularly with Likert Scale. Meanwhile, the sample of the research were both tourist and business owners of 257 people in the Mandalika Special Economic Zone in Central Lombok. The results and findings indicate that the development of community-based tourism is a leading factor in the formation of community welfare in the area. This is a prove of the development of community-based tourism has significant and direct impact towards community welfare.