“Are there truly acoustic melodies on hillsides?” Can such human-based manufactured soundscapes be an asset to tourism destinations?

• DOI: 10.24294/jipd9230
• Publication Date: 2024-11-15T03:03:54Z
• Authors: Al Fauzi Rahmat; Zoltán Bujdosó; Muhammad Ramdani ...; Yerlan Issakov; Ali Bağdadi; Amina Uaisova; Lóránt Dénes Dávid

Soundscape tourism has become one type of tourism, and its trend is emerging in most areas with hilly, forested, and natural landscapes, such as Bantul Indonesia, becoming a mainstay for region development and its community. This article explores four human manufactured soundscape tourism destinations in Bantul, Indonesia, examining the interrelationships between each tourism stakeholder and pinpointed development from a socio-economic perspective. We adopt a cross-case study approach, drawing main sources from government statistics, regulations, social media narratives, and online news. Using the NVivo 12 Plus software, we coded and annotated the research source. Our research revealed that in four case studies, tourism soundscapes emerged as the primary tourist attractions, with other attractions only marginally contributed. Presenting music or acoustic stages enabled tourism industry to reap benefits, particularly for local community and regional income. However, it is important to emphasize sustainability issues, thus, the continuous increased in music soundscape in nature has led to the formation of collaborations among tourism actors, with local communities “Pokdarwis” posed as the principal driving force behind destination development. This study demonstrates that human-manufactured soundscapes have the potential to increase visitor numbers and outperform natural soundscapes in natural destinations.