Local residents’ sense of autonomy towards marine-based adventure tourism development in Ambon

Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: arismarfai@ugm.ac.id

Abstract

Marine-based adventure tourism is one of the fastest growing areas within the world’s largest industry. Regardless the increasing awareness of the economic and environmental significance of adventure marine-based tourism, it is only in recent years that a substantial body of research has developed but mostly still focuses only in the area of the visitors. Meanwhile, the local residents as an important factor who take role in the establishment of adventure marine-based tourism development has little been studied. Therefore, the local residents’ sense of autonomy in developing the marine-based adventure tourism in Ambon was examined by means of qualitative interview study. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews and field observations. Furthermore, the data has been analysed by inductive analysis. Series of focus group discussions and participatory GIS have been done in order to enrich the data collection process The findings of this study which are three major emergent themes, serve as a basis for the local residents to develop marine-based adventure tourism in a sustainable approach. Their sense of autonomy along with the stakeholders in developing the marine-based adventure tourism will result in more benefits for the visitors as well as the local economy development.