Anti-Politics in Tourism Governance: Managing Ratenggaro Tourism in Maliti Bondo Ate Village, Southwest Sumba Regency

Abstract

This study aims to analyze anti-political governance practices in the management of Ratenggaro Tourism Village in Maliti Bondo Ate Village, Southwest Sumba Regency. The research focuses on the process of program and policy formulation, community representation and participation in policy-making, community exclusion from decision-making, policy elitism, and the unequal distribution of tourism benefits. The study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with data collection techniques through interviews, observation, and documentation. The research informants consisted of village government, traditional leaders, cultural site guards, local business actors, and local communities who were selected using purposive sampling. Data analysis was carried out through the stages of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results show that Ratenggaro tourism management still exhibits anti-political governance practices characterized by weak community participation, low transparency and accountability, the dominance of certain elites in decision-making, and limited involvement of indigenous communities and local business actors. The community is more often positioned as an object of policy implementation rather than as a subject who has the right to determine the direction of tourism development. In addition, the distribution of economic benefits from tourism has not been carried out fairly so that local communities have not received optimal benefits from tourism development. This research emphasizes the importance of collaborative tourism management that involves the community equally to create participatory, transparent, socially just, and sustainable tourism governance.