Abstract
Social capital is an often-unrecognized staple of community participation in a tourism site’s development, although social capital comprises elements essential for successful community-based participation. This paper discusses how the host community’s participation in the tourism development of Cibalay Megalithic Site was driven by local social capital. Cibalay Megalithic Site is one of the last reminders of ancient beliefs and is an iconic landmark, located within the Bogor Regency of West Java, Indonesia. It is also within the protected area of Gunung Halimun Salak National Park. Cibalay Megalithic Site is a product of a socio-cultural environment, deriving from the relationship between man and nature. Thus, its tourism development should interpret this history and promulgate environmental education as one of the key elements of sustainable tourism. The local Village of Tapos I was established as a tourism village; within this village, the hamlet of Sinar Wangi was declared a conservation hamlet. Both designations were achieved due to local initiatives of the host community in developing local tourism, with Cibalay Megalithic Site as the iconic tourism focus of the area. The high level of trust towards local figures and visitors, the conservation norm of “leuweung hejo, masyarakat ngejo” (if the forest is green, then the people will be prosperous) underlying everyday local life that indicates the importance of nurturing nature, good inter-personal relations between village members, and good social networking with outsiders: all combined to create the conditions and motivation that facilitated collective action in developing local heritage tourism.
Highlights
A great deal of tourism relies on places with natural, indigenous and historic significances which tourism products are based, that can be categorized as natural and cultural tourism of which are forms of heritage that must be preserved
These elements make up the working definition of social capital, in addition to cooperation, relationships, and social interaction (Pawar, 2006). This is in line with the results concluded by Thoyre (2008) and Liu et al (2014), which confirm, that a high level of social capital encourage community‟s behaviour in environmental protection. All of these findings suggested the potential of social capital in enhancing community participation in cultural heritage tourism development
In the context of human development and the Cibalay Megalithic Site, social capital has a great influence because some dimensions of human development is strongly influenced by social capital such as the ability to solve problems together, raise collective consciousness to improve the quality of life and looking for opportunities to improve welfare
Summary
A great deal of tourism relies on places with natural, indigenous and historic significances which tourism products are based, that can be categorized as natural and cultural tourism of which are forms of heritage that must be preserved. Heritage tourism can be defined as visiting historical and archaeological sites for the purpose of acquiring knowledge or entertainment (Hasan and Jobaid, 2014), in which arts, culture and heritage form a key attraction for visitors, and a focus of their activities (Columbia, 2014). Pforr and Megerle (2006) and Ali-Knight (2011) heritage tourism can evolved as a potential niche tourism product and market that enhances visitors‟ awareness and appreciation on man civilization and human-built resources. These can be achieved through outdoor and recreational activities (Ali-Knight, 2011; Farsani, Coelho and Costa, 2011). Heritage tourism can share experiences with other modalities of tourism, yet remain distinct in its purpose and add new dimension to the tourism product offered
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