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Abstract
Mount Gede Pangrango National Park (TNGGP) is one of Indonesia’s most visited conservation areas, known for its accessibility from major cities in West Java and its rich montane ecosystems. Over the past three years, the number of visitors to the Cibodas–Pangrango hiking trail has shown a persistent increase from 10,980 visits in 2022 to 61,794 in 2024, raising concerns about ecological pressure and trail degradation. This study aims to assess the tourism carrying capacity of the Cibodas–Pangrango trail to support evidence-based and sustainable visitor management within the park. A micro-spatial quantitative approach was applied following the Cifuentes (1992) model, which includes three stages: Physical Carrying Capacity (PCC), Real Carrying Capacity (RCC), and Effective Carrying Capacity (ECC). Correction factors such as slope, rainfall, and psychological comfort were incorporated, while management capacity was evaluated based on the availability of services and infrastructure. The results indicate that the PCC of the trail is 19,523 visitors per day, the RCC (after applying correction factors) is 3,763 visitors per day, and the ECC (after considering a management coefficient of 0.70) is 2,634 visitors per day. Compared with the 2024 average visitation rate of 229 visitors per day, the trail remains within a safe capacity threshold. These findings highlight the need for implementing empirically derived visitor quotas, improving controlled reservation systems, and integrating carrying capacity data into monitoring frameworks to balance ecosystem conservation with visitor experience quality.