The Interactions of City Tourism Stakeholders in Indonesia: Lessons from Surabaya Heritage Track

Abstract

Given the increased in historical tourism in urban areas, sustainable and competitive city tourism requires an integrated management approach based on the principles of collaborative governance. This article aims to discuss the collaboration among stakeholders in managing Surabaya Heritage Track as a historical city tour. The collaboration involves the private sector, local government, and the community. This qualitative analytical descriptive study uses case a study approach, and collected data through in-depth unstructured interviews and observation. The study shows that the success of Surabaya Heritage Track is influenced by the government policies of corporate social responsibility, and the commitment of the private sector to make the innovation design on the tourism objects with thematic tours. The finding reveals that community support also becomes the strength and resources in collaborative governance, while the initiation of collaboration comes from the private sector. However, the role of local government is still limited, because the collaboration is informal. Interestingly, the collaboration continues because the private sector has a high commitment to preserving the historical heritage of the city. We suggests that local governments facilitate the expansion and enhancement of stakeholder involvement and the institutionalized collaboration can be enhanced to ensure competitive and sustainable city tourism.