Selling to tourists: Indonesian Street Vendors

If it is considered at all, the informal sector is often viewed as a problem by tourism planners. This paper examines street vendors in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a center for cultural tourism, using the concepts of heterogeneity and differentiation, economic linkages, and government involvement. It is shown that the distinction between the informal and formal sectors is becoming increasingly blurred. The Yogyakarta vendors exhibit many of the characteristics commonly ascribed to participants in the informal sector but differ in others, particularly in legal status and government regulation. The latter can be viewed, in part, as a means of influencing the nature of resident-visitor encounters and influencing the quality of tourists' experiences.