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This study conducts a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 20 empirical and conceptual articles published between 2020 and 2025 to examine the influence of city branding on tourism interest and consumer behavior, with a particular focus on the city of Balikpapan. The synthesis reveals that city branding significantly shapes tourist perceptions through key elements such as destination image, brand identity, brand personality, and digital communication. Destination image consistently emerges as the primary mediator linking city branding to visit intention, while experiential and emotional branding further strengthen tourists’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. The findings also highlight the growing importance of digital media and e-WOM in amplifying city branding strategies, especially in the post-pandemic tourism landscape. Despite strong branding potential rooted in cleanliness, safety, and Balikpapan’s strategic role as a supporting city for the new capital (IKN), gaps remain in digital branding, differentiation, and identity storytelling. The review emphasizes the need for more integrated, innovative, and data-driven branding approaches to enhance the city’s competitiveness and attract greater tourism engagement.

Mursala Island is one of the potential coastal tourism areas in Central Tapanuli Regency, known for its natural uniqueness and rich local culture. However, tourism development in this area re-mains unstructured and unsustainable. This study aims to analyze the current conditions, infrastructure readiness, accessibility, community participation, and the level of local socio-cultural resilience toward tourism in order to formulate strategies for sustainable coastal tourism development. A mixed-methods approach was employed, with primary data collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire distributed to 100 respondents.The results show that local socio-cultural resilience is the most strategic variable in supporting tourism interest (mean = 4.06), followed by community participation (3.82), infrastructure readiness (3.61), and accessibility (3.26). Qualitative findings reinforce these results, revealing that while the community actively maintains cultural traditions, they face access barriers and lack participatory institutions. A SWOT analysis led to realistic strategies such as establishing a Local Customary Tourism Unit, developing permanent piers and sea transportation, and drafting a village regulation (Perdes) on culture-based tourism.This study concludes that sustainable coastal tourism development in Mursala Island must be grounded in the strength of local social capital, cultural preservation, and improvements in accessibility and infrastructure. The findings contribute theoretically to strengthening the concept of Community-Based Tourism (CBT) and practically to informing policy direction for locally-based coastal tourism area development.