Lagging yet strategic: Tourism and regional development planning in a lagging-outermost-forefront area (borderland) in Indonesia

Sa？etak With hundreds of regencies and cities scattered in Indonesia, fair development becomes a challenge. So far, there are 183 of 412 regencies in Indonesia that are categorized as lagging-outermost-forefront areas, and 27 of them are borderlands. These areas are categorized as such by the "limitation" of their geographic conditions, natural and human resources, infrastructure, and degree of isolation. Therefore, in the framework of regional development and tourism development, in particular, the status of some of the border areas have been raised to the national strategic areas. This study is a case study from Sambas Regency of West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, which is one of the lagging-outermost-forefront areas (borderlands) and a national strategic area. This study focuses on the discussion on the tourism development (planning) and regional development (in general) in the strategic area. From in-depth interviews, observations, and documentary research that were done, as a national strategic area, Sambas formed a complex situation of many plans, policies, and actors that should be synchronized one to another. Basically, Sambas has the potential of tourism attractions, closeness to the neighboring countries, as well as one of the national development priorities. However, the contribution of tourism to regional development is still limited as the tourism is not the development priority and due to the limitation of regional treasury, tourism infrastructure, and tourism policy support. Besides, as the Regency's tourism development master plan activities have not started yet, there is a difficulty in synchronizing the provincial and national and tourism master plans