ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC VALUE OF OELUAN NATURAL TOURISM BASED ON TRAVEL COST METHOD IN BIJELI VILLAGE, NOEMUTI DISTRICT, TIMOR CENTRAL UTARA REGENCY

Abstract

Ecotourism is a tourism sector that has the potential to support the economy, from ecotourism it can also be used by local governments to increase original income in their own regions.Oeluan tourism is a nature tourism located in Bijeli village, Noemuti district, North Central Timor regency, in the form of a public bath that comes from natural springs.Utilization of environmental functions requires environmental management as well as other businesses or activities that require funds, where in this case the cost is needed as a value that can be used to measure how much use value or benefit to the environment is.To determine the economic value of a tourist attraction area, that is by using one of the travel cost methods.This study aims to determine the factors that influence the intensity of visits and calculate the economic value to the Oeluan Nature Tourism object.This research was conducted by sampling method by accidental sampling, in which this sampling took respondents as samples based on chance.The results showed that from the results of the regression test the effect of the intensity of visits together, namely the age factor, education level, income level and time had an effect on the intensity of visits where a significant value was obtained at 0.000 <0.05, while partially only the time factor affected the intensity of visits.The economic value of Oeluan Nature Tourism Object using the travel cost method is Rp. 101,698,952,004/year.