State Capitalism and the Spatial Politics of Tourism: Governing Tourism Development in Indonesia During Global Disruption

This article examines how crises reconfigure the relationship between state power, capital, and tourism development. Situating tourism within debates on state capitalism and neoliberal governance, it argues that global disruption does not merely halt tourism accumulation but reveals how states selectively govern tourism spaces according to political and strategic priorities. Drawing on comparative case studies of Mandalika and Lagoi in Indonesia during the COVID 19 pandemic, the article demonstrates how state led projects anchored in state capital were subject to regulatory relaxation and policy prioritisation, while privately led, foreign capital dependent enclaves remained constrained by uniform national restrictions. The analysis conceptualises tourism governance as a form of spatial ordering in which state capital reshapes regulatory regimes to secure nationally significant projects. The findings contribute to critical political economy scholarship by showing how disruption in tourism reproduces uneven spatial hierarchies and reinforces the strategic centrality of state capital within contemporary capitalism.