Challenges and Development of Small Islands Tourism in Indonesia: Study on Four Indonesia’s Island Destinations

Abstract. The Indonesian government places the tourism sector as one of the five priority development sectors. It has proven by the foreign exchange earnings of this sector. If in 2015 this sector is ranked fourth under the oil & gas, coal, and crude palm oil with a value of approximately 11 USD billion, then from 2018 to 2019 was ranked first with the foreign exchange value of around 20 USD billion. Indonesia consists of 17,000 large and small islands, located at coordinates 6° N - 11° 08' LS and from 95° ' BT - 141 ° 45' BT. With these conditions, the choice of small islands tourism development is very critical. Provinces that have sea and islands mostly make their islands to be tourist destinations. This study aims to determine consumer perceptions and assessments of tourism objects, as well as from stakeholders, and provide strategic recommendations for the development of these islands’ tourism. The research method used is a qualitative and descriptive method, through focus group discussions, interview, and in-depth discussions with various stakeholders as well as distributed questionnaires to respondents who visited and stayed at the tourist destination. Four of the island's tourist sites studied were the Anambas Islands in Kepulauan Riau Province, Ora Beach in Maluku Province, Wakatobi Island in Southeast Sulawesi Province, and the Banyuwangi’s Red Island in East Java Province. The selection of these four destinations because the locations have a far-reaching or remote character and highlight the island as the main object. Based on the analysis, the factors that become challenges in island tourism are the accessibility to tourist areas, supporting infrastructure such as telecommunications facilities, packaging of unique tourist destinations to be able to show differences and advantages in each tourist destination. Government support plays a critical role in building tourism destinations, both through policies and rules, as well as infrastructure fulfillment.Keywords: small island tourism, tourist destination, strategic marketing, eco-tourism