Beyond Economic Motives: Cultural Pride and Religious Tradition as Drivers of Small-Scale Event Tourism in Coastal Fishing Communities of West Sulawesi, Indonesia

Event-based tourism in coastal communities has primarily been studied through economic indicators such as visitor numbers, tourist spending, and multiplier effects, while research on small-scale recurring events driven by non-economic motivations remains limited. This study aims to uncover the meanings behind tourism event practices in coastal fishing communities in Polewali Mandar Regency, West Sulawesi, Indonesia. A qualitative approach with an interpretive ethnographic design was employed, with data collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation of four annual events, namely Sandeq Race, Malauyung, Pammunuang, and Mallampei, held across three coastal villages. The findings reveal that event-based tourism in Polewali Mandar takes two primary forms: competition-based and religious-activity-based tourism. Neither form is driven by economic calculation; both are sustained by communal pride in maritime cultural heritage, institutionalized spiritual obligations, and binding social norms. These events function simultaneously as arenas for affirming maritime cultural identity, mechanisms for reproducing social solidarity, spaces for intergenerational knowledge transmission, and vehicles for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH), most notably through the close interdependence between the Sandeq Race and its underlying traditional boat-building practice. The study further finds that these events attract a distinct typology of visitors, ranging from local residents and domestic tourists with kinship ties to the host villages, to a modest but consistent stream of international tourists, and that their sustainability reflects a form of informal Community-Based Tourism (CBT) rooted in intrinsic social capital rather than institutional or industry-driven development. This study proposes the concept of pride-driven small-scale event tourism, referring to small-scale event tourism sustained by communal pride in cultural heritage and religious tradition rather than economic orientation, thereby expanding event tourism, religious tourism, and the CBT literature by foregrounding non-material dimensions as central to understanding coastal community-based tourism practices.