Predicting determinant factors and development strategy for tourist villages

Tourist village program is one development priority program for rural development. Despite numerous opportunities to develop tourist villages such as the availability of natural resources and high demand for tourist villages recently, some challenges are still faced to develop tourist villages, especially in a developing country such as Indonesia. Governance problems, infrastructure, and effective partnership are among other factors that remain challenging in developing tourist villages. This study attempts to identify factors that determine the state of tourist villages in Indonesia and determine the appropriate strategies for better tourist village development. Using the case of tourist villages in Kedung Ombo, Central Java, a water based attractive tourist village, this study uses both machine learning and multicriteria approaches by means of Promethee in order to address the objective of the study. This study shows that government support, application of information technology, infrastructure, local participation, partnership, and attractive variations, are among the determinant factors that affect tourist village development. The study also reveals that the appropriate strategies for tourist village development include, improving infrastructure, institutional strengthening, and capacity building. This study could be used to assist local national as well as sub-national governments to effectively manage tourist villages in Indonesia.