Featured attractions mapping in South Kalimantan and Its Impact on the Poor

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to: (1) Create a mapping of the attractions featured in each district in South Kalimantan based on the criteria of competitiveness, attractiveness and carrying capacity to be a mainstay of South Kalimantan (2) Knowing the impact of the existence of attraction towards the poor in the surrounding attractions.This research is a qualitative research. The research site is set in South Kalimantan which includes all tourist attractions in South Kalimantan in 13 regencies/cities. The focus of research is conducted at leading tourist attraction in South Kalimantan. The sampling techniques use purposive sampling and snowball sampling. This is done because of the number of data sources did not give a satisfactory data, so the researchers found the others that can be used as the source of data (Sugiyono, 2007). The data that has been obtained is analyzed by using interactive model of analysis which was developed by Miles and Huberman (1992). The researchers found out that the leading tourist attractions in South Kalimantan are: 1) Floating Market, tourist attraction that is located at the mouth of Barito River, 2) Pulau Kembang, tourist attraction which is managed by provincial government of South Kalimantan, 3) The Grave of Syekh Arsyad Al-banjary, religious tourist attraction that is located on Banjar Regency, 4) Loksado and Tanuhi, tourist attraction that are located on Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency and managed by regional government of HSS, 5) Gedambaan Beach, tourist attraction. From the result of some interviews with all tourism departments of Regency/City in South Kalimantan, they hope that tourism can be a product that can give contribution to the economy of society and can eliminate the poor through the development of local economic sectors. Tourist attractions in South Kalimantan are still unable to support local economy, because some of the tourist attractions are only visited by tourists on school vacation, holiday, and some particular events. So that, the development of tourism still can not give much benefits to the poor, so far. The tourist attractions in those areas do not only bring benefits for the poor, the other classes of society also get the benefits from the existence of those tourist attractions. The direct effect of the existence of tourist attractions is the emergence of jobs such as parking man, cleaning service, food vendor, and others job opportunities. The tourist attractions enable the society to get additional income aside their main jobs as farmer, fisherman, labor, even civil servant. Society around the tourist attractions also feel indirect effects of the existence of tourist attractions such as the open road access, the availability of telecommunication networks, the open of trade routes, and the raise of land prices. These effects can not be valued by money, but the existence of these tourist attractions will bring the society to have a better life.