Study of development of mangrove forest potential for ecotourism in Kunkun Village, Mandailing Natal Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

The mangrove ecosystem in Kunkun Village has been used as a tourist destination to be closer to nature. In addition, at this location there is also a river that is used as fishing tourism, as well as a mangrove forest that still has various fauna as one of the areas developed to be a mangrove ecotourism area. The aim of this study were to identify the suitability index of mangrove ecotourism and to determine the carrying capacity of the tourist area. This research was conducted using survey method with a sampling technique and determination of suitability based on weighting and scoring. The suitability index for mangrove tourism is included in the conditionally appropriate category with a percentage value of 55% to 75% which means that further management is needed so that the potential that exists in the mangrove ecosystem in this area can continue to be developed into an environmentally-based tourism area. While the carrying capacity of the area is 235 people/day which is divided into two groups of land and water tourism. However, the management of the ecotourism area is still lacking in terms of promotion of existing tourist spots. infrastructure in the ecotourism area is still less supportive and other facilities are not yet available.