An Overview of Creative Cities and Ecotourism Development in Jepara District, Indonesia

Abstract

The city today is conceptualized using terms of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The concept of creative cities began to be discussed when the Indonesia Creative Cities Network (ICCN) was formed as part of the creative industry development program. The ecotourism concept is one aspect that must be implemented in creative cities. The implementation of ecotourism must be concerned with a sustainable environment and involve society as a tourist. According to the direction of the Indonesian president that environmental sustainability is the primary goal of Indonesia’s development. Jepara, as a developing district in Indonesia, has the potential to be developed as a strategic and policy framework as a benchmark for other districts/cities in Indonesia. This research aims to serve as an overview of a conceptual framework that must be considered to develop creative cities and ecotourism in Indonesia. The results show that the conceptual issue correlated with creative city and ecotourism must be handled and accommodated to facilitate the development of creative city and ecotourism. This framework can support further research in this developing concept and can be implemented in other developing districts or cities.