The economic benefits of rural tourism: Creating opportunities for local actors in tourism village Moni

Abstract

Rural tourism is getting more popular. But what are the economic advantages for the local community? This reserarch shows that many local entrepreneurs in tourism village Moni (Indonesia, Flores) have started small tourism businesses. Foreign entrepreneurs have started medium scale businesses and have provided many job opportunities for local people. The local community is benefiting directly from tourism. In addition other local people such as farmers and fishermen are benefiting indirectly from tourism. However there are also some implications that are engaged with rural tourism. The most striking issue is the unequal distribution of benefits among the local community due to lack of education, skills and access to tools. In other words: rural tourism has contributed to the economic growth of many local people, but cannot be considered as sustainable yet.