The Enhancement of micro small enterprises capacity and local economy through socio economic institution networking: Study in East Java Tourism area

Tourism sector is one of the driving sectors of economic growth for some regions in East Java, especially in Batu City and Malang Regency. The objective of the research is to identify social economy institution in an attempt to enhance local society's economy in tourism areas in East Java. The research area covers Jatim Park tourism area in Batu City and Balekambang Coastal Resort in Malang Regency. Using an action research as the research methodology, the respondents are classified into the micro small business agents, the tourist and the manager of tourism area. The research finding shows that 1) the Small Middle Enterprises (SMEs) on Jatim Park Tourism Area and Balekambang Beach are still dominated by local citizens; this means that tourism object can provide employment and income for the locals, 2) the tourists are still dominated by local tourist and those from other cities in East Java and 3) the manager of tourism area keep on improving the management of the tourism objects in order to attract the tourist visits. In other side, the accessibility of capitalization as the measurement of economic capacity shows that there are a lot of SME agents who have not been able to get the access to capitalization from the banks, especially those in Balekambang tourism resort unlike most of SMEs agents in Jatim Park who have succeeded in getting capitalization access from the banks. Meanwhile, the trades associations in the tourism area have developed and given a lot of advantages to its members, so that it supports the local economy institution.