THE READINESS OF BONO TOURISM SITE’S INFRASTRUCTURE IN SUPPORTING BEKUDO BONO FESTIVAL AS AN INTERNATIONAL EVENT

• Main Author: Oktoviami Zef, Rilla
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/37353
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Bekudo Bono Festival is one of the three festivals that is being held in Riau Province that is included in Wonderful Indonesia’s Calendar of Event. This festival is unique because its main event is surfing on a tidal wave in Kampar River. By being known internationally, Bono Tourism Site has experienced increase in number of foreign tourists, but the local government itself understands that this tourism potential is still being held back by the inadequate infrastructures. This study aims to analyze the readiness of Bono Tourism Site’s tourism infrastructure, which later would help to find the proper development strategies to support the Bekudo Bono Festival as an international event. This study used a qualitative approach and primary and secondary data collection. Primary data is collected through interviews, observations, and questionnaires. Respondents of this study is purposive in nature by choosing the respondents through snowball method which is divided into three groups; the academics, the civil servants on the province and regency level, and the surfers. The questionnaires consisted of seven variable of readiness, which are: the readiness of basic tourism infrastructures, supporting infrastructures for tourism, festival and event infrastructures, event charactheristics, the appeal of surfing, supporting infrastructures for surfing, and precedent facilities (by using the precedent of Benak River Malaysia, and Alberta River Surfing Canada). Those variables are then graded by using likert scale. This study then found that even if the infrastructures of each variable are considered ready, but on the field, there are some things that need consideration and development to be able to integrate the support to the festival and the improvement of the locals in the tourism industry. This study is still considered rare because of few things, such as the evaluation of the readiness of tourism infrastructures, discussions on international festivals, and lack of studies on river surfing. This study is then expected to add some knowledge to the literatures of tourism infrastructures and river surfing.