Tourist Perception of the Existing Conditions of Kurenai Beach Tourism

Abstract

Kurenai Beach is a tourist destination on the coast of Tomini Bay, Bone Bolango Regency, Gorontalo Province. This beach has fine white sand and stretches quite wide, allowing various beach tourism activities to be carried out. It is essential to measure tourist perceptions of a tourist destination because tourist perception is a form of assessment of the existence of tourism that aims at the development of future destinations and helps guide beach managers to make decisions in pursuit of sustainable beach tourism. Some factors that influence tourists' perception of choosing a beach include attractions, accessibility, and amenities. This research aims to provide scientific information on tourists' perceptions of the Kurenai Beach tourist area as a first step towards sustainable tourism management. Tourist perceptions were obtained through incidental interviews with 120 tourists. Tourist perception is measured on five components: the physical condition of facilities and infrastructure, accessibility, tourist attraction, tourist infrastructure, and the quality of tourist areas. Data analysis in this study used the Likert scale to determine tourists' perception of the existing conditions of Kurenai Beach tourism. The results showed that, in general, tourists' perceptions of the current conditions of Kurenai Beach tourism were on good criteria, with a total percentage value of 67.4%. The tourist attraction component has the highest perception value, and the physical condition component of facilities and infrastructure has the lowest perception value. The low achievement of the value of tourist perception of the existing condition of Kurenai Beach needs special attention in the context of the sustainability of this tourism in the future.