The paradox of rural tourism and poverty alleviation

This research aims to analyze factors determining the competitiveness of rural tourism and assess its performance compared to the poverty level in each province in Indonesia. We employ four main pillars: enabling environment; travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions; infrastructure; and natural & cultural resources adopted from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum 2019. We conducted fieldwork in four provinces, namely Aceh, Bali, Central Java, and North Sulawesi, by spreading questionnaires and giving semi-structured interviews to obtain respondents’ insights. The poverty gap index measures the intensity level of poverty by employing an expenditure-based poverty line. This study discovers that infrastructure, natural & cultural resources, and enabling environment support rural tourism development in each province. We also find that the excellent performance of rural tourism competitiveness seems to have minimal impact on poverty. Bali has become the major icon of tourism in Indonesia; ironically, its poverty level is relatively higher than in other areas. Meanwhile, Central Java ranks as the second most competitive province after Bali, while the poverty level is the lowest. Our study offers community-based tourism (CBT) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to resolve the situation.