Sustainable Development Strategy For Ecotourism at Tangkahan, North Sumatera

Ecotourism Destination of Tangkahan is located at the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, within the Sub-regency of Batang Serangan, Regency of Langkat, Province of North Sumatera, Indonesia. The Ecotourism Destination of Tangkahan relies upon a distinctive tourist attraction, namely elephant trekking that is undertaken along the edge of the river and in the Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), as well as the diversity of flora and fauna available at the GLNP. There are many activities can be undertaken by visitors at this destination, such as: elephant trekking, wildlife watching at the GLNP, trekking at the edge of Buluh river and come back by swimming wearing life jacket, tubing (traditional rafting) and canoeing at Batang Serangan river, swimming at Buluh river, camping and outbound activities at the camping ground, village tour at sub-village of Kuala Buluh, and traditional massage ( pijat / kusuk ) by local therapist. The research was undertaken to develop strategies which could be used as guidance in managing and developing this ecotourism destination. The proposed strategies were based upon the results of SWOT analysis. Data were assembled from the visitors’ survey, focus group discussions and workshop involving tourism stakeholders and several interested groups. Based upon the analysis of existing tourist attractions offered at the Ecotourism Destination of Tangkahan, it could be said that the nature based tourist attractions were considered to be interesting up to very interesting. The uniqueness of elephant jungle trekking in the GLNP was the tourism icon of the Ecotourism Destination of Tangkahan. Camping ground, plant nursery


Introduction
Eco-tourism is getting popular as an alternative form of tourism activity which is expected to bring benefits for the regional economy and to contribute to the nature conservation.
Some countries have implemented eco-tourism in managing national park. Eco-tourism has been recognized to contribute to nature conservation, and to bring sustainable benefits to the park management, local community, and government (Sudarto, 1999). The eco-tourism type of national park management is also possible to be implemented in the area of Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) that covers an area of 1,094,692 hectares within the region of two provinces, namely North Sumatera and Nanggroe Aceh Darusalam (NAD). The GLNP has various tourist attractions which also consider being exotic, such as orangutan at Bukit Lawang (North Sumatera), and elephants at Conservation Response Unit (CRU) Tangkahan (North Sumatera). This paper focuses on the eco-tourism at Tangkahan in which the elephants are the main attraction. Some elephants have been taken care by the CRU Tangkahan for jungle patrol and to protect the agricultural area near the forest from the wild elephants. However, these elephants have also become attractions for tourists, such as elephant trekking (Gunawan, 2008). The tourist areas of Tangkahan has been known as one of the popular eco-tourism destinations at North Sumatera Province. However, eco-tourism development at Tangkahan was cosidered to face some challenges, such as: lack of community awareness on nature conservation and environmental sanitation, lack of accessibility and tourism facilities, and lack of supports from local government (Langkat Regency) and provincial government (North Sumatera Province).
Regarding the above challenges, this paper aims to provide some directions which were obtained from an academic study and analysis in order to develop sustainable ecotourism development at Tangkahan. The objectives of the study were: (i) to analysis of existing tourist attractions and facilities available at Tangkahan; (ii) to undertake an analysis of internal and external factors related to eco-tourism development at Tangkahan; and (iii) to establish the strategies and programs that could be used as guidance in managing and developing ecotourism destination at Tangkahan by the tourism stakeholders.
The study was undertaken in several steps, namely:  (Rangkuti, 1998). (iv) workshop: undertaken in order to develop a recommendation of eco-tourism development strategies and programs, involving tourism industry, local government tourism authorities, local community and NGOs at the study area.

Destcription of the study areas
Eco-tourism Destination of Tangkahan has been relied upon a distinctive tourist attraction, namely elephant trekking that is undertaken along the river edge and in the GLNP, as well as the diversity of flora and fauna available at the GLNP. Other tourist attractions at Tangkahan, such as:  Nature based attractions, such as: Batang Serangan river and Buluh river, Alur Garut and Gelugur water fall, Buluh river and Gelugur hot springs, caves (Gua Kalong, Gua Kambing Hutan, and Gua Langkup Gendek), and palm oil plantation. Tourism facilities and services were also already available at Tangkahan, but they were considered to be insufficient yet. The facilities and services were including: 6 units accommodation (bungalow and homestay) about 42 rooms with simple facilities, 5 units restaurant / rumah makan with 25 tables, one travel agent namely Community Tour Operator (CTO) owned by Lembaga Pariwisata Tangkahan (LPT), and 11 tourist guides who can speak English.
Eco-tourism Tangkahan was supported by several supporting facilities, such as : a visitor centre, a traditional water-based transport made from wood and bamboo (rakit), elephants for elephant trekking activities, foot path for trekking in the GLNP, elephant trail, rubber tube that can be rent by tourist for tubing in the river, elephant garden which has been planted for sugar cane and grass (elephant feeds) with organic fertilizer from elephant's manure, camping ground, and 2 units public toilets located at the back of LPT's Office.
However, there was no currency exchanger, and no electricity network by PLN and no telephone line by Telkom to the tourism area of Tangkahan. Communication can be made through seluler phone only. Parking area was also considered to be limited.

Anaysis of tourist attractions and facilities
Based upon the analysis of existing tourist attractions and facilities at Tangkahan, it could be said that:  Nature based tourist attractions at Tangkahan were considered to be interesting up to very interesting. The uniqueness of elephant jungle trekking in the GLNP is the tourism icon of Tangkahan.  Culture based tourist attractions at Tangkahan were considered to be interesting. Traditional foods, traditional medicines and local tradition were considered to be potential to be promoted as tourist attractions in order to support eco-tourism at Tangkahan.  Man-made tourist attractions at Tangkahan were considered to be interesting up to very interesting. Camping ground, plant nursery, and agriculture plantation were potential to be promoted as tourist attractions at Tangkahan.  Accessibility to Tangkahan was considered to be not good, particularly in term of transportation and communication facilities.  Tourism facilities and services at Tangkahan were considered to be good and sufficient, especially restaurant/ rumah makan. However, accommodation and travel agent, as well as banking facility, public toilet and parking area were considered to be not sufficient yet.
Based upon the results of analysis of level of importance of tourist attractions and facilities, it could be said that:  There were some tourist attractions considered to be very important, namely: diversity of fauna, uniqueness of fauna, view of nature, and tourist activities available at the destination.  There were several tourism facilities and services considered to be very important, namely: restaurant / rumah makan and public toilet.  Some tourist attractions were considered to be important, namely: diversity and uniqueness of flora, handicrafts, traditional arts, traditional foods, traditional architecture, agriculture plantation, and camping ground.  Several tourism facilities and services were considered to be important, namely: accommodation, travel agent, and banking facilities (including currency exchanger).  Several accessibility indicators were considered to be important, namely: transportation and communication facilities.

Analysis of Internal and External Factors
Some internal factors were considered to be the strengths of Tangkahan as an ecotourism destination, namely: 1) Tourist attractions (nature, culture, and man-made) 2) Tourist activities available at the tourist destination 3) Tourism facilities (accommodation and restaurant) 4) Land zoning of the tourism area 5) Institutions related to tourism management (community or private) 6) Community awareness on tourism (sadar wisata) 7) Community and tourism industry awareness on nature conservation e-ISSN: 2407-392X. p-ISSN: 2541-0857 On the other hand, some internal factors were also considered to be the weaknesses of Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination, namely: 1) Accessibility (land transportation) 2) Tourism supporting facilities (public toilet, parking area, health-care facilities) 3) Human resources for tourism 4) Tourism marketing 5) Capability of the local community to invest in tourism 6) Cleanliness and environmental sanitation 7) Risk of accident during tourist activities.
Based upon the analysis of internal factors (IFAS), the overall internal factors at Tangkahan got score of 2.66. It means that these internal factors were considered as the strengths of Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination.
Several external factors were considered to be the opportunities for Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination, namely: 1) Interest of tourists to visit a tourism destination 2) World trend of 'back to nature' 3) Situation of politics and security (global and national) 4) Government role in tourism development (regency, province and central government) 5) Collaboration with other institutions.
However, some external factors were considered to be the threats for Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination, namely: 1) Economic situation (global and national) 2) Competitors from similar type of destinations 3) Illegal logging 4) Sustainability of the tourist attraction (elephant trekking).
Based upon the analysis of external factors (EFAS), the overall external factors at Tangkahan got score of 2.60. It means that these external factors were considered as the opportunities of Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination.

Recommendation for Ecotourism developmet
The strategies and programs that are recommended for tourism development at Tangkahan as an eco-tourism destination, namely: to build more public toilets as well as to establish a management of public toilets at Tangkahan. (k) To establish electricity networks into the Tangkahan tourist area.