International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 4 No. 12 [Special Issue – September 2013] 123 Envisaged the Potential of Sustainable Sacred Tourism in Java Indonesia Hengky, S. H. Associate Professor School of Tourism, Hospitality, & Environmental Management (STHEM) College of Law, Government, & International Studies (COLGIS) Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Sintok, Malaysia Associate Professor TRIGUNA, School of Economic, Bogor, Indonesia ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Fellow, UUM CUIC (Centre for University Industry Collaboration) Fellow, UUM Director of SHINE Institute, Bogor, Indonesia Email: hengky_halim@uum.edu.my; hengky_halim@yahoo.com.au Abstract Indonesian domestic tourism industries reach 123 million tourists in 2011 and contributed $16.35 Billion. This research conducted from July 2011 till December 2012, 304 respondents were collected by purposive and stratified sampling, in Java Island where were inhabited by 58% of total Indonesian peoples. The data was tabulated by content analysis. The objective of this research is to envisage the potential of sustainable sacred tourism in Java Indonesia. Based on sustainable tourism, the carrying out of sustainable sacred tourism in Java Island showed 57.89 percent are sustainable sacred tourisms. The rest 42.11 percent of sustainable sacred tourisms would be improved by implementing sustainable tourism concept. High-end sustainable operation shares the benefits of sustainable sacred tourism with surrounding communities through employment as trickle-down effects of revenue that result of it. The benefit from sustainable sacred tourism is not only to improve environmental performance, but it is also improving domestic tourist visitation up to 42 percent and market share of domestic tourism as well. Keywords: Sustainable sacred tourism, sustainable tourism, trickle-down effects, Indonesia. Introduction Indonesian tourism industries reach 123 million tourists in 2011 (Fajarwati, 2012) and number of transactions reached in about $16.35 Billion (Faried, 2011). The background conducting this research: Firstly, to explore sustainable sacred tourism on Java island where is it inhabited by 58% of total Indonesian peoples and it is the world’s most populous island residents in 2009 (124 million people) before Honshu Japan which inhabited 13 million people (Samsan, 2011). Besides, there is sustainable tourism concept which would improve sacred tourism to be sustainable sacred tourism (Page & Conell, 2008). The objective of this research is to envisage the potential of sustainable sacred tourism in Java Indonesia. It is useful for academicians and researchers on how to improve the domestic economic contribution. Likewise, it could be as the recommendation to Indonesian Tourism Government on improving sustainable sacred tourism by implementing the concept of sustainable tourism Literature Review Sutton & Kang (2010) demonstrated that conceptual categories of tourism and religion are not mutually exclusive. This distinction has been made by many others in tourism research who have described the pilgrimage as a form of religious tourism to a sacred or religious heritage site. Benami, Tafreshi, Ghorabi, & Ghasemi (2013) founded that pilgrimage is sacred tourism on religion perspective which is influenced by religious calendar, and religious terms and conditions. It had largest social impacts on rural households in rural area (Pourtaheri, Rahmani, & Ahmadi, 2012) as well as its plays a promising role in socio-economic development of the region (Sati, 2013) which more successes if they supported by local peoples and volunteering tourism organizations who significantly contributed to understanding sustainability at micro-level (Benson & Henderson, 2011).