Building Tourism from Within: Mobilizing the Lens of Social Innovation on Pasaran Island

Abstract

The identification of tourism attractions and supporting tourism-related infrastructure in small urban islands is often preceded by an unawareness of the existing social and institutional capacity. This study scrutinizes existing livelihoods practices, community networks, environmental initiatives and the governance on Pasaran Island, a small Indonesian island with high tourism potential. A qualitative research approach used with 13 semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation and analysis of relevant government and institutional documents. Mobilizing the lens of social innovation, findings were interpreted from community-based tourism and destination governance perspectives. Livelihoods in the fisheries and fish processing sectors possess the knowledge, skills and business structures that can support future visitor-oriented activities. Existing community-based producer groups and SEA MAMA—a women initiative group, recycling community have shown emerging capacities for collective actions and environmental stewardship. Formal planning mechanisms and government facilitation provide further institutional entry points, despite limiting community influence over decision-making. These capacities are subject to weak access to capital, underused facilities, fragmented environmental management, dependence on local champions, and the absence of integrated tourism governance. The study argues that Pasaran Island is best understood as a pre-destination community in which livelihood assets and institutions form tourism-enabling social capacity but have not yet developed into destination-level institutionalization.