Space for the informal tourism economy

Abstract

In developing countries, many informal economy service providers obtain their livelihoods from tourism, and occupy and share public spaces to do so. As such, these actors must develop ‘rules in use’ that allow them to work alongside other providers, both formal and informal, in these shared spaces. These actors engage in coopetition, a mix of cooperation and competition, with each other. This paper provides a case study of informal sector service providers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to examine how these actors access resources and interact. Snowball sampling was adopted to identify actors and 47 in-depth interviews with pedicab drivers and street vendors were conducted and supplemented with naturalistic observation. Results indicate the public spaces occupied by the informal sector may be classified as common pool resources, collective goods, or semi-private goods. Further, the interaction among the actors in these public spaces is based on the types of, and capacity in, providing goods and services, and trust generated from the actors’ interactions. This research identified the formal and informal ‘rules in use’ that govern the behaviours of the actors related to the use of spaces. Suggestions for how informal economy actors can manage such spaces to enhance their livelihoods are provided.