Understanding the Drivers and Barriers of Community Participation in Green Tourism Development: A Qualitative Study of Kahayya Tourist Village, Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the driving and restraining factors influencing community participation in green tourism development in Kahayya Village, Bulukumba Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, an emerging rural destination characterized by strong ecological assets such as coffee agroforestry systems, natural landscapes, and conservation-based tourism resources. Employing a qualitative research design supported by NVivo 15 software, data were collected through in-depth interviews, direct observation, and documentation involving eight categories of purposively selected informants. The analysis followed a systematic thematic approach through open, axial, and selective coding, with outputs visualized using word frequency queries, hierarchy charts, and coding-by-person matrices to uncover patterns of participation and their determining factors. The findings indicate that driving forces are distributed across six principal themes, with Government and External Party Support emerging as the most dominant, followed by Collaboration and Partnership and Economic Opportunities and Welfare Enhancement. Additional supporting factors include Natural Potential and Agritourism, Social and Cultural Motivational Factors, and Community Awareness and Initiative. Conversely, restraining factors are heavily dominated by Resource Limitations and Local Capacity constraints, representing the majority of coding references, with infrastructure identified as the most critical sub-theme. Community participation in Kahayya reflects diverse typologies, ranging from self-mobilization in creative and economic initiatives to more limited involvement in waste management and institutional governance. This study offers empirical contributions from an underrepresented rural ecotourism context in Eastern Indonesia and demonstrates the value of integrating NVivo-assisted thematic analysis with participatory typology mapping to systematically capture the complex dynamics shaping community participation in green tourism development..