Promotion Mix and the Role of Tourism Activist Groups on the Rate of Tourist Visits to Benan Island, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia

Benan Island is a marine tourism destination in the Riau Islands Province. The local government has carried out tourism promotion through the relevant agencies. However, the level of tourist visits to Benan Island is still fluctuating. Lack of access to information, either through conventional promotional activities or based on digital data, is deemed not to have a strong influence in maintaining the stability of the level of tourist visits. Thus, the solutions are increasing tourism promotion activities (promotion mix) and the role of tourism awareness groups and looking for alternative promotion mixmodels that effectively increase the tourist visit rate.This study suggests that the promotion mix and tourism activist group significantly affect visits to Benan Island partially or simultaneously. Furthermore, the tourism activist group acts as a mediating variable somewhat(instead ofwholly) of the indirect relationship between the promotion mix and the rate of tourist visits. The local government did not optimally utilize the promotion mix and the tourism activist group to promote the number of visits to Benan Island.