Assessing Environmental Existing Condition to Achieve a Sustainable Urban Tourism Destination

A Case Study Bukittinggi City, Indonesia

Abstract

Bukittinggi, a popular tourist destination in West Sumatra, Indonesia, has a restricted carrying capacity because the tourism industry is the main driver of the city's economy. This paper aims to assess the city environment's existing conditions as a tourist destination to minimize the environmental impact of tourist activities. This study employed a quantitative descriptive method and analyzed environmental data collected by experts and trained personnel from relevant agencies for each environmental indicator. Furthermore, a comparison analysis was carried out with environmental quality standards for each indicator to define its carrying capacity status. Low environmental carrying capacity was identified in 9 out of 18 assessed indicators. These include daily population water consumption (122 liters/person/day), the proportion of residents receiving treated water (37%), and the quality of drinking water from wells, with 8 parameters surpassing acceptable thresholds. River and reservoir water were also compromised, showing 13 and 8 exceeded parameters respectively. The overall Water Quality Index classified the condition as moderately polluted. In terms of energy use, tourist consumption reached 9 kWh per person per day. Meanwhile, waste-related indicators revealed further challenges, with daily waste generation per capita at 0.86 kg and waste reduction efforts remaining low at only 9%. The high to very high tourist activity index comes from the tourism pressure index (69.7), tourism concentration index (18,373), tourist arrivals to a specific area (48,836.7), and total beds per area (150.8), where the limited area influences these indicators.