Decentralized tourism development in Indonesia: a case study of Lombok Island, Indonesia

Abstract

Tourism has been accepted as an alternative local or regional development strategy by many governments in developing countries. In developing countries, most of development of the tourism sector is a product of central planning. Decentralization is highly considered as an alternative to make better tourism management. After Reform Era, delegation form of decentralization has been implemented due to the enactment of UU 22/1999 (the Local Autonomy Law), where local government has gained the amount of new authorities to manage tourism. Centralized approach has its limitations, particularly related to consideration of community involvement in the development process. Decentralization approach is an effort to attain the best possible spatial pattern of development. The central concern of local planning is to solve the problems of the regions and to insert their plans into the overall national development plan of the country. It is the main contention of this conceptual paper to discuss the effect of decentralization approaches to tourism planning in Indonesia and to examine the situation in Lombok island tourism development and planning process in the region.