Community Empowerment in the Bandar Bakau Eco-tourism Area, Dumai City

Abstract

The Bandar Bakau Eco-tourism area is one of the well-known tourism products in Dumai City. As a tourism product, regional governance based on relying on community strength will be able to strengthen the economy in a sustainable manner, improve community welfare and preserve biodiversity. However, community strengthening still relies on patterns of cooperation with external parties from community groups. This research aims to analyze the stages of community empowerment in the Bandar Bakau eco-tourism area, Dumai City and analyze the obstacles to community empowerment. The concept used in this research is the concept of stages of community empowerment according to Wrihatnolo Dwijowijoto (in Bahri, 2019), which explains that community empowerment is a process and goal that includes awareness, capacity building and empowerment. The research method used is a qualitative method with a case study approach. The results of this research show that forms of community empowerment in the Bandar Bakau eco-tourism area, Dumai City are not yet fully running well because there are still forms of community empowerment that are still hampered, which can be seen in terms of the ability of the Bandar Bakau community who are not yet able to fully participate in the development and management of the area. tourism thereby influencing community empowerment. The factors inhibiting community empowerment in the Bandar Bakau eco-tourism area are 1) unsustainable empowerment programs, 2) regulations governing conservation management of mangroves, 3) lack of innovation in mangrove use and 4) weak commitment public