Pilgrimage tourism at Guru Kapuh: Destination and welfare perceptions alongside regional revenue trends

Purpose – This study describes perceptions of pilgrimage destination attributes and community welfare, regency revenue trends, and stakeholder accounts around the Guru Kapuh site in South Kalimantan. Design – A descriptive case analysis draws on two item-level survey worksheets, each containing 100 complete numbered records, Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency own-source revenue (PAD) figures for 2019–2023, and processed notes from six reported informants. The destination-attribute scale has 18 items and the perceived-welfare scale has 24. Survey scores are summarized separately because the correspondence of respondent numbers across worksheets cannot be independently verified. Findings – Mean summed scores were 70.90 (SD 4.20) for destination attributes and 91.10 (SD 5.34) for perceived welfare. Regency PAD rose nominally from IDR 168.033 billion in 2019 to IDR 210.796 billion in 2023, with substantial annual fluctuations. Interview summaries describe trading opportunities for some participants and the absence of an official pilgrim retribution at the time of fieldwork. Research Implications – Future studies should verify respondent linkage, measure household income and business costs over time, and collect site-specific visitor and fiscal data to test proposed livelihood and revenue pathways. Originality – The study distinguishes perception scores, contextual business accounts, and aggregate fiscal data at an emerging pilgrimage destination. None establishes a causal welfare effect or the site’s contribution to regency revenue. Islamic welfare and pilgrimage ethics are used as interpretative perspectives, not measured outcomes.