From Cultural Festival to Tourism Village: Multicultural Tourism Transformation, Community Resilience, & Benefit Distribution in Singkawang
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56338/ijhess.v8i4.12376Keywords:
Cultural Tourism, Cultural Festival, Tourist Village, Community Resilience, Benefit DistributionAbstract
This study analyzes the transformation of cultural tourism in Singkawang from a reliance on cultural festivals to strengthening community-based tourism villages. Using a critical qualitative approach and a case study design, this article examines how cultural festivals, representation of multicultural identity, community resilience, and benefit distribution shape the direction of destination development. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews, field observations, documentation studies, and secondary data analysis of Singkawang tourism and culture for the 2020–2024 period. The findings indicate that cultural festivals play a key role in driving destination visibility, strengthening the city's multicultural image, and activating the local economy. However, fluctuations in the number of tourist visits, length of stay, and festival intensity indicate structural vulnerabilities in a tourism model that relies too heavily on cultural events. The study also suggests that tourism villages can serve as a spatial and social extension of festivals through the development of MSME products, homestays, local culinary delights, cultural narratives, and community-based tourism experiences. However, the distribution of tourism benefits remains uneven due to the influence of institutional capacity, market access, promotion, and community involvement in decision-making. The main contribution of this article is to propose the concept of festivals as a transition mechanism from destination branding to community-based destination development. Practically, this study recommends the integration of cultural festivals and tourism villages through collaborative governance, strengthening local capacity, cross-event promotion, and more inclusive and sustainable benefit distribution mechanisms.
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