BARITO (INDONESIA) AND CHAO PHRAYA (THAILAND) RIVERS CULTURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Southeast Asia is a region consisting of the mainland and archipelago. Residents around inlandwaters, especially rivers, have a unique culture called river culture. One of the river cultures is afloating market that is found in several Southeast Asian countries. The floating market on the ChaoPhraya River has been successfully developed as a leading tourism destination. Indonesia has afloating market on the Barito River which has great potential but has not been developed to its fullpotential. This study will discuss how to develop river culture tourism in Indonesia through acomparative study between the floating market on the Barito River, Indonesia and the Chao PhrayaRiver, Thailand. This study uses a qualitative method based on the theory of cultural ecology. Theanalysis was carried out using the SWOT method. This research corpus uses the results of previousstudies on river culture that developed in the Chao Phraya River, Thailand which is used as acomparison against the river culture in the Barito River. Secondary sources are taken fromdocumentary film, traveler’s blog, books, and various publications related to this research. Thisstudy finds that the development of floating markets is in accordance with the theory of culturalecology. Barito has unique culture that are combination of local and Islamic culture. However, theinfrastructure, human resources quality, products and services has not well developed to gainsustainable local tourism community. Barito River floating market tourism development strategiescan be applied through site selection, operating schedule arrangements, quality improvement anddiversification of services offered, market organization, and hydration with other entertainmentattractions. The development strategy must take into account the principles of sustainable culturaltourism development. In conclusion the development of floating market tourism on the ChaoPhraya River can be an example for the development of floating markets on the Barito River.