Social Impact of Cultural Tourism in Indonesia: The Case of Tana Toraja

Abstract: This study investigates the perceptions of leaders in Tana Toraja, Indonesia towards the social impacts of cultural tourism. The ethnographic qualitative approach to the five important participants revealed that host communities support the development of the tourism industry despite acknowledging the unfavorable social impacts of tourism. Despite this very clear and generally positive view, the participants identified specific social positive and negative impacts that, in their view, affected the host community. The results suggest that leaders of communities believe that tourism contributes positively to their communities socially and economically and that awareness of certain social negative consequences that do not bring the resistance of the development of the tourism industry.