Analysis of Ecotourism Potential Development in Pohuwato Regency,

Gorontalo Province

SUNARTY SULY ERAKU1*, MOHAMAD KARMIN BARUADI2, AANG PANJI PERMANA1

*Corresponding Author

scoring and descriptive methods are utilized to analyse the data obtained from the field. The analysis reveals

that several sites and local wisdom are the potential to be further cultivated to attract tourists to Pohuwato such

as Pohon Cinta Beach, Torosiaje the Bajaunese Village, Lahe Island, and Libuo Beach. This mapping will

benefit the public and government in providing information and making it easier for visitors to get to know the

ecotourism sites in Pohuwato regency and assist the development of Geopark Gorontalo.

Received: February 22, 2023. Revised: June 4, 2023. Accepted: July 5, 2023. Published: July 27, 2023.

understanding what the market/tourist wants. There

are three at least three main things that attract a

tourist to visit a site: its nature, culture, and the

human itself. These things need to be uncovered in

order to increase the visits of both local and foreign

tourists. Meanwhile, there are many aspects, both its

nature, and culture, that are waiting to be discovered

and explored.

Further, tourism development is needed to boost

equal business opportunities and obtain benefits and

inspires people by educating visitors to face the

future by taking into reference the cultures provided

in a tourism site. The tourism business provides an

opportunity to explore the history and culture of a

site. Cultural tourism integrates various concepts of

tourism study and promotes a holistic, flexible, and

reflective view on tourism, [3]. Describe that

selection of tourism purposes is largely influenced

by the nature of the culture. Therefore, cultural

tourism needs to be sustainably developed. Further

internationally. It has become a new alternative for

tourists who travel not only to enjoy nature but also

to conserve the existence of tourist attractions for

sustainable use. It is widely known that ecotourism

is a leisure travel to natural attractions intended to

conserve the environment and life as well as to

preserve the livelihood of the local community, [6],

[7], [8], [9]. Ideally, ecotourism has to meet several

criteria such as the conservation of biodiversity and

culture through protection of the ecosystem and

to tourism site development. According to [12],

noted that ecotourism offers a holistic value of

tourism that balances the beauty of enjoying nature

with the efforts to preserve it. It ensures ecologically

friendly development that based on community,

utilization of natural resources, [14], and has a direct

impact on the local community, [15].

Meanwhile, Pohuwato Regency has plenty of

natural endowments such as its unique beaches and

coastal area, and its diverse and beautiful culture. It

is also complemented by its terrestrial resources and

rich biodiversity to potentially attract more visitors

to this place and increase the welfare of its people.

Pohuwato is also given an advantage in its

morphological and geological condition, through its

core values for sustainable tourism development and

community participation in sustainable tourism

infrastructure and facilities development, [21]. A

well-developed tourism object, which signifies the

influx of visitors and an increase of income

generated from this tourism object will ultimately

bring positive advantages for the economic

development of the community, and in turn, will

lead to the increase of welfare and improvement of

life quality of the local people, [22]. Thus, it is

Regency are very limited, therefore, there is a need

to develop tourism by taking into consideration the

interest in nature. Tourism development in

Pohuwato Regency needs to be developed into an

ecotourism area to cultivate the local wisdom and

growth approach as well as economic equality for

people’s livelihood and sustainable development.

Tourism development in Pohuwato should be

people’s centered and empowering. Tourism

potential concentrated in several areas in Pohuwato

equality and driven by community participation. It

also needs to be spread into other areas in Pohuwato

that have unique natural and cultural advantages.

Hence, this article aims at mapping the tourism

potential in the Pohuwato Regency.

whereas scoring analysis is used on physical

parameters, and qualitative descriptive is used in the

final measurement of ecotourism potential in

Pohuwato regency. The physical parameter in this

study is distance, facilities, attraction, and

availability of clean water. Meanwhile, the socio-

economic and environmental institution parameter

in this study comprises of management, attraction,

security, food and souvenir stall, and spatial

planning.

Table 1. Tourism criteria based on the physical parameter

A : Arts and Entertainment Attraction

K : Security

PCM : Souvenir and Food Selling

TR : Spatial planning

environmental parameters consist of 5 indicators,

namely management, arts/entertainment attractions,

security, sales of souvenirs, food and beverages, and

spatial planning.

visitors can maximize the utilization of existing

assets according to their function.

Table 2. Tourism criteria based on institution, social, cultural, and environmental parameters

Source: (Modification of [22])

Arts and entertainment attraction, Art is the main

attraction of a tourist attraction. The assessment of

the parameters of attractions, entertainment, and arts

for tourism objects is based on how often

of food and drinks is highly expected for visitors.

Assessment of tourist objects with this parameter

emphasizes more on the quantity or number of

places selling souvenirs, food, and drinks in a tourist

attraction. Spatial planning is the suitability of

cultural tourism objects with the allocation of space

utilization on provincial and district/city spatial

maps.

Table 3. Physical parameters

Table 4. Institutional, social, economic, and

weight for attraction and management is 0.3 as these

are the main factors that made a person decide to

implement tourism activity. Meanwhile, distance,

water availability and spatial planning/spatial is

given a score of 0.1. The scoring for each parameter

is presented in Table 3 and Table 4 below.

The score of each tourism site's potential was

calculated by the average of the total score of both

physical and Institution, Sociocultural, Economy,

and Environmental parameters (PKSEL).

The scoring formula for tourism potential

The score obtained from this formula is then

assessment

its typology, the Pohuwato coastline is stretched for

160 km2 that covers an area of 3,300 ha. Most of the

Pohuwato regency area is a lowland hill with several

prairies and highlands. This physical condition of

the area made 55% of its population work as

farmers, 35% as fishermen, and the rest work as

government employees and others. The residential

areas are mostly scattered along the trans Sulawesi

highway and the land outside this residential area is

yet occupied. Several tourist objects in this regency

The calculation of the distance of several tourism

objects based on the distance classification mostly

resulted in high potential as the locations are near

the capital of the regency. Those sites with high

scores for distance parameters are Pohon Cinta

Beach 4 km from the district capital, Lahe Island 5.5

Table 9. Physical parameters assessment results

Next, the attraction parameter is classified by

creating a 1 km buffer in each site and by

buffer area. The results showed that Lahe Island and

measurement of all the sites based on attraction in

= (Score × J) + (Score × SP) + (Score × A) +

(Score × DT) + (Score × KAB)

= (02×5) + (0.2×4) + (0.2×4) +(0.3×4) +

(0.1×5)

= 1+0.8+0.8+1.2+0.5

physical parameters. The detailed assessment of

these non-physical parameters is presented in Table

10 below.

= (Score × P) + (Score × AH) + (Score × K) +

(Score ×PCM) + (Score × TR)

= (0.3×3) + (0.2×2) + (0.2×2) +(0.2×3)+

(0.1×3)

= 0.9+0.4+0.4+0.6+0.3

= 0.9 + 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.6 + 0.3

= 2.6

= (Score × P) + (Score × A) + (Score × K) +

(Score ×PCM) + (Score × TR)

= (0.3×3) + (0.2×3) + (0.2×3)+(0.2×3)+

(0.1×3)

= 0.9 + 0.6 + 0.6 + 0.6 + 0.3

= 3

Table 10. PKSEL parameters assessment

parameter score and non-physical parameter score

for the ecotourism site in Pohuwato Regency

produced the final score and final potential score,

which are described in Table 11 below.

based on the final score of all the combinations

between physical parameters and social institutional

economy and environmental parameters which later

divided into two. The results show that all

Pohon Cinta beach is located in Pohuwato Timur

and the coordinate location is N 00.449710 E

first destination in this district with its Maleo bird

icon. The mangrove site is one of the attractions that

created to enjoy this mangrove site. Its mangrove

vegetation and the fauna that can be found within

this mangrove forest are among the attraction of this

site. A polygon of 1 km is created to identify the

tourist attractions within this 1 km buffer area of

each of the sites.

several other attractions such as swimming and

Cinta beach is very easy as it has a wide and smooth

access road. The accessibility and facility on this

site are based on comfortability with a global

standard for its users.

Fig. 2:- Pohon Cinta ecotourism beach

Regency). There are also information centers, health

care centers, firefighter offices, and beauty care

centers. This site is also located near the shops and

banks.

health clinics and hospitals. This ecotourism site is

also near the Grand Mosque and has three other

praying facilities, and an iconic prostrating mosque

is in its vicinity. Pohon Cinta site also has a sports

facility, mini football field, and volleyball field, as

high score due to the Tulude ritual performed on

this site. This ritual is an annual rite performed by

the Sangihe tribe in the Pohuwato regency and has

been performed since the early establishment of this

regency back in 2003. Tulude ritual is a ritual

offered to Mawu Ruata Ghenggona Langi (God), as

the expression of the Sangihe ethnic gratitude to

God for all the blessings given in the previous year.

The word Tulude is derived from the word

“suhude” in the Sangihe language, which means

community, they revealed that the tourism activity is

largely dependent on the government agency, the

tourism agency of Pohuwato. This was due to the

limited availability of the tourism industry that

exists in this area. Our respondents also disclosed

that the security of this site is guaranteed by the

local community. On the spatial planning aspect, the

literature revealed that based on the local regulation

of Pohuwato Regency of 212 on Pohuwato Spatial

Planning, this destination is in line with the spatial

This island is known for its beautiful sandy beach

that surrounded the island and its great underwater

view.

This potential is yet developed and very little

information is provided on this island. However, the

government of Pohuwato has started to collect data

on this island and since then, it has attracted many

divers that used to visit other sites in Central

Sulawesi (Togean). Its healthy coral and diverse

types of coral as well as its inhabitants are a good

enjoy its underwater view. The local government

also purposefully sunk the old vehicles to create the

homes for the underwater biota in this location.

Lahe Island has many visitors from abroad due to

their transit trip to Togean Island in Central

Sulawesi. In addition, some of them also like to

explore new areas such as this Lahe Island and some

other islands in Pohuwato. The picture of Lahe

Island is attached in Figure 3 below.

Based on its physical parameters, Lahe island has

under the water is also clear. Thus, this island is

highly potential to be further developed as thematic

tourism as an ecotourism site.

Fig. 3: Aerial view of Lahe Island and its

surrounding white sandy beach

Tomini Bay about 600 meters from the mainland. In

this village, 389 families reside and most of them

are fishermen. Their houses are built on the sea and

each house is connected with a wood plank that

creates a path surrounding the village. This path

stretches for about 2.2 km. The village is accessible

by boat only and the access is provided by the local

community using the traditional Bajau boat. To

reach the boat, the visitors only need to walk from

the parking lot, through the concrete path created in

hostels belongs to the government. There are also

several homestays in this village. A healthcare

facility is also available in this village. Thus, both

villagers and visitors can utilize this facility.

great attraction for visitors. There are also shops for

toiletries and amenities for visitors. In addition,

there are also souvenir galleries as well as cultural

galleries available in this village.

Visitors can also enjoy the nearby spots by boat.

Some can even interact with the black and white tip

shark, green turtle, school of fish, and beautiful

coral reefs.

The security of the village is located at the

sustainable waste management still is an issue that

needs to be addressed in the development of the

ecotourism village in Torosiaje. Torosiaje

Ecotourism site is shown in Figure 4 below.

Torosiaje village has multiethnicity; the Bajau,

the Chinese, the Javanese, the Buginese, and

Gorontalonese. Each of this ethnicity proudly shows

its culture through symbols and values. Similarly,

the cuisine of each ethnicity is also showcased to

strengthen their identities. Such diversity is not only

attractive for people of similar cultures, but also for

those of other cultures. This diversity has produced

its sociocultural attractiveness and its local wisdom.

the Puspa or Bunga Village of the Paguat sub-

district of Pohuwato Regency, Gorontalo Province.

Libuo has a beautiful sandy beach, thus, suitable for

family activity. The distance from the capital of the

district (Marisa City) is only about 15 km.

Similar to Lahe Island, this beach also has many

evergreen trees or Wohu trees in the local language.

These trees provide shade for visitors. This beach is

easily accessible by land vehicles and about 30

access made this tourism object a suitable choice for

tourists. The site provides cottages for those who

want to stay overnight. Other facilities such as a

secure parking lot and clean water and bathing

facilities are also available on this site. This beach

and enjoy other activities such as playing beach

volleyball in Libuo as well as other family activities.

Several activities that can be done in Libuo Beach

are swimming, snorkeling, mangrove tracking, and

sea culinary.

services to ensure the cleanliness of this tourist site.

This cleanliness factor is one of the factors that

encourages repeat visits from tourists. The

availability of garbage bins in several spots in this

area also convenient for tourists to maintain the

tidiness of the area. A small mosque with clean

water for prayers is also provided in the area.

Further, there is also a decent playing field for

visitors to exercise and play sports.

visiting Libuo Beach. The local people treat tourists

This study has revealed that several tourism sites

mapped in this study are potential ecotourism sites.

These sites have both natural tourism potential and

local wisdom that can be further developed into eco-