Sustainable Marine Ecotourism Development Strategy in Merauke Regency

Abstract

Merauke Regency is a plain area which is between 0-60 meters above sea level and the south and west are bordered by the Arafuru Sea. Flat areas become centers of population that use land for cultivation activities and become a concentration of settlements. While the coastline of the Merauke Regency is potentially developed into a maritime-based tourist destination, which is often called Marine Ecotourism. The research objectives are: designing a strategy for developing marine ecotourism in Merauke Regency. The research method used is the purposive sampling research design, expert system research methods, and analysis techniques with the Analystical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The conclusions in this study are: (a) The order of priority of goals is: goal of conservation of sustainable coastal resources, especially mangroves,  growing a new center of economic growth, prepare the location of new marine tourism destinations, finally increasing contribution to local revenue. (b) Sequence as actors is: private, private together with the government, and government, and (c) Development sequence focus is: socio-economic engineering and integrated technology, namely integrated, the arrangement of acceptance to the marine tourism, management of coastal resources eksploitation speciality sand and mangroves,   growing fishery-based agro-industry SMEs, and  promotion and attract investors for the development of marine tourism.