Waves for development? Local perceptions on surf tourism retribution in Mentawai Islands

This article is about the relation between surf tourism and development agenda. The implementation of surf tourism retribution in Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, offers an interesting case study to understand how surf tourism can coalesce with development agenda and policy. In this article, I record and narrate how local people in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, perceive the policy of surf tourism retribution under the guise of development narratives and in relation to local meanings of waves. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, the research finds that the enforcement of surf tourism retribution has further complexified the notion of waves as resource among Mentawaians, as well as re-interrogated the idea of waves for socio-economic development in Mentawai. The re-interrogation process may hint that there is a disjuncture between rhetoric and practice of ‘waves for development’ policy on the islands. Aside from putting forward the importance of local people’s practices and perceptions in tourism, this article contributes to the body of literature on tourism–development nexus by adding the case study of surf tourism and retribution policy mechanism. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.