The Synergy of Development of Various

Cultural & Historical Attractions as a Heritage Tourism around the

Area of China Village, Manado

Benny Irwan Towoliu

, Dimas Ero Permana

and Fonny Sangari

Departement of Tourism, Politeknik Negeri Manado, Mapanget, Manado, North Sulawewsi, Indonesia

Keywords: Historical-Cultural Attractions, Heritage Tourism, China Village, Manado.

Abstract: Compared to the development of a variety of marine tourism attractions, the development of historical-

cultural attractions in Manado seems to be overlooked and does not receive the highest priority in the

context of urban tourism development. This study aims to examine various developments in historical-

cultural attractions to serve as Tourism Heritage. A real example has become a tradition for the Manado

Chinese descent to hold the cap go meh cultural event every year. The age of this cultural attraction has

been hundreds of years since these Chinese people settled in this city. Interestingly, this attraction is

watched by local people and foreign tourists. For the tourism community, there are so many historical-

cultural attractions that are still preserved around the China Village area of Manado, which can be used as

heritage tourism. The method used is site observation and interviews with communities around the Manado

China Village area, and also literature study. The results showed that 1) three communities collectively

support this area to be a heritage area, such as The Manado Chinese Village Community as a core

component, the Arabic village community and, the indigenous Manado community; 2) The core area of the

Manado China Village can be used as a diorama for the presence of the old city of Manado; and the 3)

Communities can have new tourist alternative locations and enrich the infrastructure of tourist facilities in

the city of Manado.

1 INTRODUCTION

Cultural and historical tourism in the past few

periods is not a top priority; practical tourism that is

in accordance with the main focus even determines

the leading position in the regional tourism

promotion event in Indonesia. Even though the

Indonesian government prioritizes all potential

uniqueness on the same priority scale, the

compilation of entry into regions in Indonesia is

very visible as an area that prioritizes natural

potential as the central superior. In contrast, the

cultural and historical potential is not well prepared.

From the results of observations, nowadays only

a few regions in Java have placed culture and history

as the leading tourist attractions, for example,

Borobudur and Prambanan temples found in Central

Java, old colonial buildings in Jakarta, and parts of

East and Central Java. Then the Balinese culture

reflected in the pattern of Community and Nature

Interaction, known as “Tri Hita Karana”, is a pearl

of local-cultural wisdom that is raised as a potential

tourist attraction.

In the past few years, the Indonesian

government has tried to trace various cultural and

historical heritage in each region to be developed as

a regional tourist attraction, especially as a historical

and cultural tourist heritage. Manado, as the capital

of North Sulawesi Province, seems to experience the

same thing as other regions on the island of Java,

where it relies more on nature as a tourist attraction.

Indeed, Manado’s strategic position, which is

located on the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean is

recognized, allowing local governments and local

communities to prefer nature in the form of the sea

as a tourist attraction. Even though presenting the

history of the construction of a city can be a

potential tourist attraction to visit. There is a big

question about the beginning of the Manado city, the

initial activities of the community and the initial

situation. It is interesting to examine further that the

Manado community consists of various tribes, which

are in the Minahasa land and tribes from several

Irwan Towoliu, B., Ero Permana, D. and Sangari, F.

The Synergy of Development of Various Cultural Historical Attractions as a Heritage Tourism around the Area of China Village, Manado.

DOI: 10.5220/0010624600002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 251-257

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

251

islands located at the tip of Sulawesi Island such as

Sangir, Ternate and foreign migrants who have long

formed their communities such as Chinese, Arabic,

and Indian. The settlement of people with old age

proved the interrelation of the presence of the city of

Manado. Other evidence is also seen from several

old heritage sites and old cultural attractions that are

loved by the local community.

From various investment findings related to

community life, cultural attractions and heritage

sites can become a strong tourism asset and become

separate alternative tourism, when it is built together

to support each other to form the synergy of heritage

tourism in the city of Manado. The purpose of this

study was to analyze The Synergy of the

development of various cultural and historical

attractions as a Heritage Tourism around the area of

China Village, Manado.

2 LITERATURE STUDY

Tourism is several relationships and symptoms that

result from the stay of foreigners, provided that their

stay does not cause temporary or permanent

residence and business as an attempt to find a full

job. Mc Intosch and Gupta (1980) limit that tourism

is a combination of symptoms and relationships

arising from the interaction of tourists, business,

government, and host communities in the process of

attracting and serving tourists and other supporters.

Meanwhile, Matieson and Wall (1982) define

tourism as the temporary movement of people to an

area outside their place of residence and workplace;

the activities carried out guarantee them during their

stay in the destination and facilities made to meet

their needs. Furthermore, Spillane (1987) states that

tourism is a journey from one place to another that is

temporarily carried out by individuals or in groups

as an effort to find balance and happiness in the

environment in the dimensions of social, cultural,

natural, and scientific. Whereas, Ben (2010)

mentions that tourism is the study systematically

related to symptoms, a person’s journey, or many

people from a particular place, with various

purposes. Thus, it can be concluded that tourism is a

journey only to enjoy, not to find work with various

purposes, where tourist destinations provide various

facilities to be enjoyed by visitors which ultimately

bring income to the community.

In the development of tourism, there are tourist

objects and attractions. In Undang-Undang Republik

Indonesia (1990) states that there are two types of

objects and tourist attractions which consist of: (1)

objects and tourist attractions created by God

Almighty in the form of natural conditions, flora,

and fauna; (2) tourist objects and attractions

resulting from human works in the form of

museums, ancient relics, historical relics, cultural

arts, agro-tourism, water tourism, hunting tours,

nature adventure tours, recreational parks, and

entertainment venues. A tourist destination has an

attraction. Besides having to have tourist objects

and attractions, also has three requirements such as

(1) there is something that can be seen (something to

see); (2) something can be done (something to do);

(3) and there is something that can be bought

(something to buy), (Karyono, 1991). Whereas

according to Spillane (1994) there are five essential

elements in a tourist attraction are consisting of: (1)

attraction, concerning things that attract tourists; (2)

facilities needed; (3) infrastructure of objects; (4)

transportation modes; (5) hospitality, attitude in

serving and receiving guests. Furthermore, Forsyth

and Dwyer (1996) state that there are three types of

resources in tourism, including (1) natural resources

such as mountains, beaches, wild areas, deserts,

oceans, lakes, flora, and fauna; (2) human-made

resources or human-made resources such as historic

cities, villages, entertainment, a mixture of

recreation and sports, monuments, sites, religious

buildings, museums and so on; (3) human resources

such as the population of a destination, social-

cultural relations of the population, cultural values,

artistic and cultural activities.

Tourism history and culture are included in the

category of human-made and human resources, as

well as resources that are hundreds of years old.

Nuryanti (1996) states that in the socio-cultural

context, the tourist attraction category is included in

the cultural heritage attractions related to tourism

and heritage. It has been agreed in the Piagam

Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia (2003) that Indonesia’s

heritage includes natural heritage, cultural heritage,

and Saujana heritage which is a combination of

natural heritage and cultural heritage in the unity of

space and time. Regarding heritage tourism in the

form of archaeological sites, cultural dances and

folklore and other local wisdom as heritage tourism

show that there is a particular interest from various

visitors to see and learn about local culture (Yang,

2012). Heritage tourism has its enthusiasm but needs

to be maintained so that it does not cause this tourist

attraction to be damaged. The importance of the role

of tourists is to conserve cultural tourism (Irandu

and Evaristus, 2004). Khreis (2015) states that in the

development of heritage tourism looking more at the

management model that promotes carrying capacity,

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the reasons for inheritance tourism, emotional

problems usually affect people to visit religious

sites. It is necessary to pay attention to the carrying

capacity of tourism management to maintain the

sustainability of religious sites. The management of

cultural heritage sites remains in sustainable

conservation management only in management

organizations that need a combination of synergies

between private and public management (Poulio,

2014; Cannas (2016). Meanwhile, Cadar (2014), Li

and Hunter (2015), and Svensson (2015) put more

emphasis on conservation and sustainable tourism

but needed synergy between higher education,

community, and tourism sectors. Thus, in principle

the management of heritage tourism is more careful

and takes into account the elements of conservation,

carrying capacity, and the importance of educational

elements where management involves the scientific

community, local communities as inheritance

owners, conservation councils, and also the tourism

sector.

It is interesting to study further related to

heritage tourism around the Chinese Village,

Manado. From the observations, it can be seen that

only one attraction event is managed and packaged

in the Manado city tourism agenda, namely The

China New Year Festival (Cap Go Meh). It is

admitted that only the community (the Chinese

Community) still has a good agenda in the event

because it is related to culture and religion.

However, in the region, other local communities

have contributed to the history of the city of

Manado. In order to protect various historical and

cultural inheritance in the city of Manado, several

things it is necessary: (1) government policies for

tourism management are limited by the protection of

cultural heritage regulations, (2) appropriate

management models to synergize conservation

interests and tourism interests and local community

involvement (3) heritage investment, where cultural

preservation can be synergized with economic

development through cultural industries (Towoliu,

2012). In this study, the emphasis is more on the

synergy of the development of historical and cultural

attractions as heritage tourism around China’s

village area, Manado.

3 METHODS

This study is exploratory intends to solve the

problem with a case study approach it is located in

the city of Manado, North Sulawesi Province. The

advantage of the case study approach is that it allows

individual cases to be explored in depth against a

phenomenon that occurs in the community. The case

of this study is located around the China Village area

Manado. The case study was limited by time, and

the data were collected using observation, interviews

with keys people, and communities around the

object of research and documentation through

library study. This research study has the

opportunity to develop heritage tourism in the city of

Manado and is very relevant to the planning of

tourism development in the Old City of Manado.

4 RESEARCH FINDINGS

The word “Manado” comes from the local language

which is almost extinct in North Sulawesi. The name

Manado which is known today comes from the word

“Manarow” or “Manadou” (Minahasa regional

language), which means “far away”; a term that is

almost the same as the Sangihe language, namely

“Manaro”, which also means “far away” or “distant

country”. The native inhabitants of Manado are

Minahasa tribes. The original Minahasa tribes

initially preferred to live in the hinterland rather than

in the coastal areas. This situation was caused by the

tribes’ fear of the kingdom’s expansion around

Minahasa, including the threat of Mindanao pirates.

However, since the establishment of the Dutch

fortress Niew Amsterdam in 1703, the Minahasa

people finally began to dare to go down the

mountain to occupy the coastal area of the Minahasa

peninsula while developing their marine knowledge.

In this new place, they built a new profession as

fishermen, salt makers, or other professions related

to the marine world. The development of

colonialism in the 17th century was started with the

entry of a group of immigrants. This group consisted

of foreign traders, including fishers and immigrants

from the royal regions around the peninsula of North

Sulawesi. The immigrants were immigrants

consisted of Chinese, Arabic, Ternate, Bugis,

Makassar, and others who were thought to have

entered the beginning of the 17th century.

In colonial development in Manado, through

control of the colonial fortress, settlement

arrangements that included coastal locations began

to take place. Gradually, it was determined that

settlements for each group or population group were

united in one complex, village and directly

appointed the leader called “Hukum Tua”

(wijkmeester). Until the end of the 19th century,

there had been a Dutch Village, a Chinese Village,

an Arabic Village, a Ternate Village, Islamic

The Synergy of Development of Various Cultural Historical Attractions as a Heritage Tourism around the Area of China Village, Manado

253

Village, or commonly called Letter A, and

Sindulang Village. After that, new villages were

formed, such as Ketang Village, Borgo Village,

Tondano Village, Remboken Village, Kakas Village,

Tomohon Village, Langowan Village, Tombariri

Village, and Sonder Village. In addition, there are

also two other development areas, Tikala in the East

and Titiwungen in the South. Slowly the location

around the fort has continued to grow along with the

progress that has led it to become a trading centre

for the surrounding areas (Mawikere and Wowor,

2014). In its development, these villages became the

forerunner to the founding of the city of Manado.

The name of the village is based on the original

venue the residents, to facilitate the supervision of

the Dutch colonial government.

Nowadays, based on the results of the

investigation, it is shown that the centre of the Old

City and the commercial centre are located in China

Village, and besides that, there are Arab Villages.

The two villages still show the identity of the native

village as can be seen from the everyday activities of

the residents, patterns of social interaction, cultural

attractions, and old cultural sites that still exist in the

region. Other villages slowly began to develop and

become the same as the culture of other groups, even

though the mention of the names of the villages

shows the origin of the village. This consequence

can be seen from the loss of the mention of village

names that became community identities. Moreover,

what left now are the Chinese Village and the Arab

Village.

The following table (Table 1), shows the results

of observations and interviews of researchers related

to surviving historical and cultural sites centred

around the china village, Manado.

Table 1: Historical & Cultural Sites.

Chinese Villa

e Area Arabian Villa

e Area Manado Old Town Area

Old Building Sites: Old Building Sites: Old Building Sites:

Ban Hin Hiong Temple Al Masyhur Mosque Centrum Church of Manado

Kwan Kong Temple Rumah Tua (Old House) Minahasa Raa

Trade Area - Manado Old Port

etc etc Etc

Tradition & Culture: Tradition & Culture Tradition & Culture

Religious rituals Religious life Minahasa tradition

Traditional sports & game Eid (Christian Tradition)

Chinese Souveni

- Minahasa Souveni

From these findings, several tourism programs

can be developed, including:

(a) Heritage trail: the program is related to

tracing back the traces of old historic sites

located in China Village, Arab Village, and

Old Manado City.

(b) Cultural Festival: surviving cultural or

religious rituals are used as part of the

tourism festival agenda.

typical ancestral foods that have ever

existed but have been lost or are still

preserved.

(d) Traditional sport & games: sport shows

traditional games of people who have lived

and lost, to be revived.

Furthermore, the following table (Table 2) shows

some tourist attractions that can be developed while

conserving almost extinct historical and cultural

sites.

Table 2: Heritage Attraction.

Chinese Village Area Arabian Village Area Manado Old Town Area

Chinese Heritage Trail Arab Heritage Trail Manado Heritage Trail

Chinese Cultural Festival Eid Mubarak Festival Christian / Manado Tribe

Festival.

Chinese Culinary Festival - Manado Culinary Festival

Chinese Souveni

Souveni

Manado Souveni

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From some heritage tourism programs and activities,

a development model of various historical and

cultural attractions can be formulated that can

synergize all components of a sustainable tourism

product.

Figure 1: Sustainable Development of History & Cultural Heritage Tourism Attraction.

Figure 1 shows that all activities of historical

and cultural attractions are no longer carried out

partially, but are made in an activity agenda

together. As has been done so far, the policy of

implementing activities has only focused on one

agenda of the Chinese festival and celebration

activities, while the other communities seem to be

marginalized. In addition, not all historical and

cultural heritage has been well traced, only part of

which is a ritual - cultural routine packed in tourist

attractions. The whole centre of this tourist attraction

is in the Chinese Village area as a diorama of the

presence of the city of Manado. This model tries to

form a synergy of activities that are managed

together, connected to each other, support each

other, in the context of conservation in the concept

of sustainable tourism heritage.

As a result of investigations with several local

communities, and surviving community leaders from

both ethnic groups, they were impressed with the

lives of people in the city of Manado. They longed

for the centre of Old Manado to be proof of the

history of the city of Manado, meaning that all

historical and cultural elements could be turned on

through tourism. Heritage tourism is expected to be

a tool that will revive memories for generations

living in this area.

4.1 Originality

The presence of heritage tourism, create new travel

alternatives, as well as opportunities for the growth

of new businesses, improvement of social-cultural

life of the community if it is managed well (Hribar

et al., 2015). Tourism business and structural

improvements for a social life concentrated on the

coast of Manado will move into the centre of the city

of old Manado (McKercher et al., 2005). Delivering

the Potential conflicts on heritage tourism is very

open going considering the interests of the

shareholders. The conflict could be among travel

managers, communities, and the two interests of

tourism and heritage management. Heritage tourism

can be a source of conflict when management is

wrong, but can also be a source of peace for all

people, should travel heritage is managed carefully

(Poria and Asworth, 2009).

Various potential conflicts can occur, especially

in which there are elements of the utilization of

social-cultural life, including religious life. The

involvement of local communities in the

management of heritage tourism is significant

(Babić, 2015). However, in the field of heritage

tourism management located in China village, the

emphasis is on the participation and dialogue of all

elements in the two ethnic groups. This activity

involved local communities, religious leaders,

academics, local governments through tourism

agencies, cultural heritage management services, and

tourism operators to sit together discussing

management of tourist heritage, cultural, social and

economic benefits for the community. So far, the

development of tourist heritage is partial, only

dominated by one ethnic group, through local

Sustainable Development of

History & Cultural Heritage

Tourism Attraction

The Synergy of Development of Various Cultural Historical Attractions as a Heritage Tourism around the Area of China Village, Manado

255

representatives of the community. However, this

time the development model involves all elements of

society with different ethnic, traditional and

religious elements involved in managing tourism

heritage with their respective responsibilities but still

within the framework of a sustainable heritage

tourism destination. This synergy model is a

breakthrough during a socio-cultural conflict that

has occurred in several places in Indonesia as well as

being a role model for inter-community peace and

heritage tourism as a driver in creating peace where

the pilot project is located in Manado City.

4.2 Practitioner Policy Implications

This research implies that it is possible for local

governments, especially the tourism and antiquity

offices to carry out an inventory as well as mapping

potential locations as heritage areas, for tourism

operators to facilitate interpreting tourism programs,

and for local communities to improve socio-cultural

structures that have an impact community economy.

As for academics, the findings of the new model are

heritage tourism as a bridge of peace between

different groups of people and socio-cultural and

religious structures.

5 CONCLUSIONS

From this discussion, it can be concluded that the

synergy model of historical and cultural tourism can

be implemented by optimizing the three

communities, jointly exploring the various potentials

needed to be displayed. The position of the regional

government through the tourism and archaeological

offices provides a platform for the community to

showcase their various potentials and also provide

legal protection for products owned by the

community. In this model, tourism acts as a unifying

tool of historical and cultural diversity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors highly appreciate the Ministry of

Research, Technology, and Education via Research

Institution in State Polytechnic of Manado which

funded this research.

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