Tourism Market and the Movement of Visitors in “Tourism Strategic Area” in Indonesia

Tourism industry has become one of important contributors of foreign exchange for Indonesia. In order to develop it, the central government has issued several policies, one of which is by assigning national tourism strategic areas across the country that also have a role to encourage other factors, such as economy, social-security, etc. This paper is an exploratory study on the existing tourism market in one of the national strategic areas, namely Sambas Regency in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Besides, this study also observed the synchronization of this area with other attractions and other strategic areas (borderlands). After the tourism market was identified, the relation among the visitors' origins, the places they visited, and their next trips were explored to identify the dominant characters of the movement and places. This study used survey technique and network analysis. The findings conclude that the main tourism market in tourism strategic area was still dominated by domestic market with their specific characters. The visitors did not only visit the tourism attractions in Sambas, but also pass the border to go to the neighbouring country, either directly or through Sambas. This market niche can be “exploited” by Sambas regency by rearranging their attraction hierarchy, placing attractions around Sambas palace as the centre, and making the border either as an entrance or continued attractions.