Advancing Inclusive Sacred Tourism for People with Disabilities Through Accessibility, Cultural Participation, and Community Governance at Taman Mumbul, Bali

Abstract

Sacred tourism at Taman Mumbul should ideally provide people with disabilities with equitable physical, sensory, communicative, and cultural access, enabling their respectful participation in melukat under community-based governance. However, the inclusive potential of Taman Mumbul remains insufficiently assessed, as existing documents do not provide specific evidence regarding disability-responsive facilities, accessible information, and individual assistance with disabilities. This study assesses the physical, sensory, communicative, and cultural accessibility of sacred tourism at Taman Mumbul and formulates a community-based governance framework that enables people with disabilities to participate meaningfully in melukat without compromising customary authority, ritual authenticity, or sacred values. Employing a qualitative case-study design, data were collected through accessibility audits, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews, supplemented by document analysis of customary regulations, visitor guidelines, promotional materials, and photographs. The principal result indicates that while Taman Mumbul's community-based governance successfully regulates visitor participation and protects ritual sacredness, its inclusive potential remains limited because existing practices have not systematically incorporated disability-responsive physical access, the meaningful participation of people with disabilities in tourism planning and cultural engagement. The study concludes that inclusive sacred tourism requires the existing customary governance system to be expanded through disability-responsive infrastructure, accessible communication, personalised support, and participatory decision-making. This study contributes to disability-inclusive tourism and community-governance scholarship by proposing a culturally grounded framework that integrates accessibility, communication, support, and participatory agency into customary sacred-tourism management without undermining ritual authenticity or community sovereignty.