Identification of Potential and Development of the Sinjai Regency's Tongke-Tongke Mangrove Ecotourism Area

Abstrak

The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the role of local government in the development of the Mangrove forest tourism area in Tongke-Tongke Village, Sinjai Regency. Tourism development has begun to show signs of growth, as indicated by the role of local youth in marketing it via social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The Sinjai Regency Tourism and Culture Office is the site of this research, with the primary premise that the Tourism and Culture Office plays a key role in developing the Mangrove forest tourism region in Tongke-Tongke Village. The research method is descriptive qualitative, which is a type of research that aims to provide a general description of various types of data collected from the field objectively, while the research foundation is a survey, with the goal of this qualitative descriptive research being to describe situations or events. Inductively, where the researcher is a major instrument with analysis. The study's findings demonstrate the government's role as a dynamic actor; cooperation between the government and the community can be seen in the process of preserving Mangrove forests, such as nursery and planting areas that directly involve tourism and cultural services, environmental services, and the community surrounding the Mangrove forest area. The government's position as a facilitator of the development of Human Resources in the tourism region of the Tongke- Tongke Mangrove forest, is critical in achieving synergy between the community and the government, as well as improving people's welfare. The government's manner of motivation towards the private sector is the issuing of business licenses (promotions) in the form of private parties' involvement, such as Bank Indonesia (BI), as evidenced by the creation of a promotional area/place for BI in the Tongke-Tongke Mangrove forest area. The study makes recommendations for developing tourist attractions such as the Tongke Tongke Mangrove forest, which deserves more attention from the government by reaching out to the surrounding community and involving them in Mangrove tourism management, inadequate public facilities as evidenced by the lack of special rooms for breastfeeding mothers, the absence of provision of places to sit for the elderly,  and the lack of public transportation that tourists use