The integrated touristic villages: an Indonesian model of sustainable tourism?

The desa wisata terpadu policy was created in 1992 by the Indonesian government. Translated as integrated touristic villages, this model promotes an archetype of sustainable development adapted according to the characteristics of the local villages. Twenty-five years after the creation of this policy, it becomes relevant to examine its capacity to do so, by meeting the expectations of sustainable tourism, understood as a motor of global development and territorial integration. Because Bali remains the most important touristic destination in Indonesia, this study focus on this special case, and more especially on three villages considered as model examples: Penglipuran, Tenganan and Jatiluwih. For each, have been studying its economic sustainability, analyzing whether tourism brings local economic development; its social sustainability, evaluating the capacity of tourism to foster cohesion among the inhabitants by maintaining the traditional local organization; and its cultural sustainability, examining the complex effects of tourism on the preservation of local heritage. The methodology is based on a multi-case study, through a qualitative approach composed of 12 interviews with actors and inhabitants among the local population involved in tourism. Our results show that the three villages are successfully meeting the expectations of sustainable tourism by favoring economic growth that enables the local population to keep their community alive through community-based management that globally respects the traditional organization. However, their sustainability remains fragile and needs to be improved through an increasingly efficient socio-economic model. It includes more flexibility to involve young qualified inhabitants, without gender prejudice, in order to avoid the ‘vicious circle’ of a lack of qualified human resources limiting their capacity for economic growth. Those results may be of interest to researchers who are involved with tourism and sustainability issues, but also to institutions and professionals working on the establishment of sustainable models of tourism in Bali or elsewhere