Dedicated vs modest commercialization of small-scale handicraft production in Sabah

It is surprisingly that despite the government supports and initiatives to encourage formal or dedicated commercialization (full-time workshop-based production), vast majority of handicraft producers in Kota Belud, Sabah still produce their handicrafts in a modest way – from home, in fact, half proportion of these home-based producers are part-timers. This paper offers valuable insight for future research, specifically on factors for commercialization process and performance among handicraft producers in rural Sabah, in spite of their “advantaged” or “disadvantaged” production status. This paper outlines the several issues related to producers’ decisions to go (or not) in workshop-based production and main challenges to produce handicraft in a formal commercialized manner. This paper presents the emergent issues arising from a preliminary fieldwork (local desk research and key informant interviews) on the nature of handicraft production in rural Sabah. This finding has provided some valuable insight to question “why home-based production is so favored among handicraft producers in rural Sabah” and recognized the important of handicraft production in a modest way in Sabah

Study on generation Y dining out behavior in Sabah, Malaysia

Dine out has become a famous trend which indirectly contribute to the booming of the foodservice industry in Malaysia. This trend has become one of the factors that need to be considered by the foodservice operators in order to enhance and maximize their sales. Apparently, this trend followed by most of the Generation Y’s generation. Generation Y dines out and spent more than older generations and they has become the key market segment in the food service industry. They are adventurous in trying new foods and places with their unique and bizarre eating habit. The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence the Generation Y to dine out. Moreover, this study also identify the popular spot of dine out places as well as the types of food service establishments. The analysis utilized a sample collected in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia involving convenience sampling with self-administered survey. In general, the group of Generation Y is choosing casual type of restaurant as one of their preferred destination to dine in. The findings of this study are discussed to assist the food service operators to expand their market segment into this emergence market by considering price , facilities and additional value for product offered b

Visitor motivation, expectation and satisfaction of local cultural event in Sabah

Local cultural events have been one of the most important components of tourism nowadays. This event seen as an instrument for tourism development and can be part of tourism destination marketing. The result of having the events can be seen from economic, sociocultural, local businesses and political dimensions. The effectiveness of organising such event can be evaluated from the perspective of the visitor and tourist. The purpose of this study is to investigate various expectations and satisfactory of visitor of cultural events and activities organised. Moreover, this study also evaluate the visitors " satisfactory towards the facilities that was provided during the event as well as the activities organised. The analysis utilised a sample collected during Tamu Besar Kota Belud, Sabah involving 141 respondents with self-administered survey. The result of the study reveals that the main motivation of the visitor to participate is to experience the cultural event. In general, the event has met the visitor expectation and they are satisfied of the facilities and activities provided during the event. The findings of this study will be used to assist the cultural event organiser to enhance the visitor " s experiences towards staging the cultural event

Cross-border entrepreneurship: a preliminary study on informal entrepreneurs in Sebatik Island

Cross-border entrepreneurship contributes a positive spill-over effect to socio-economic growth in border regions through employment opportunities, wealth creation, better infrastructure, thus improving the standard of living in the border communities. Nevertheless, economic activities in a small border rural area tends to be less formal, which have been contended by many researchers due to several diplomatic issues, such as unclear demarcation of international borders and unequal pace of democratic development between neighbouring countries. Therefore, the study aims to explore the entrepreneurial activities in Sebatik Island, through preliminary site visits and informal conversations with local communities in two of the island’s borderline villages, i.e. Kampung Sungai Melayu and Kampung Aji Kuning by employing Rapid Ethnographic (RE) approach. The site visits provide interesting remarks about the prospects for crossborder entrepreneurship on the island. The study presents the current state of entrepreneurial activities in Sebatik Island and several emerging issues in relation to economic potential, such as the rise of informal business activities, business infrastructure, and government initiatives to support cross-border entrepreneurship on the island. This study provides valuable insights to relevant agencies responsible for rural entrepreneurial development, thus suitable measures or programs can be implemented in promoting formal cross-border entrepreneurship on the island

Local Community Participation and Responsible Tourism Practices in Ecotourism Destination: A Case of Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah

Recognizing the importance of local community participation in responsible tourism and its benefits, this case study explores and analyses the local community participation and responsible tourism practices at Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, a premier ecotourism destination from the stakeholders’ perspectives. It also describes the perception and attitudes towards tourism development including the key issues and challenges faced by the local communities. The case study adopted multiple methods involving focus-group interviews and survey questionnaires with the respective local communities residing in Lower Kinabatangan. Findings reveal that local communities recognized that Lower Kinabatangan has great potential to be developed as a sustainable ecotourism destination and to generate economic benefit. Despite this, there is limited participation of local communities in ecotourism development and responsible tourism practices among the local communities. The socio-economic demographic of the local community shows that only 42.4% of respondents have work related to tourism activities. Lack of capital and knowledge in tourism activities are the key barriers for local participation in ecotourism development. For Lower Kinabatangan to be a sustainable ecotourism destination, the participation and engagement of the local community and the practices of responsible tourism can no longer be ignored

Factors influencing SMEs adoption of social media marketing

Social media marketing usage and adoption as a new communication tools by organization and SMEs is increasingly globally and offers unique opportunities for small and medium enterprises and marketing researchers to undertake research that will have an impact. The purpose of the paper is to review the academic literature on factors that drive social media marketing adoption in SMEs and organization. The topic enable others to establish a balanced picture of the current state of global social media marketing adoption research. It also offers a useful means to analyze the kinds of research that needs to be pursued to make additional research progress in the related area of social media marketing

A Pilot Study on the Opportunities and Challenges among SME Tourism in the Heritage Food Industry in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Study based on small and medium entrepreneurs (SME) shows that tourism has increased since 2019. However, the involvement of Tourism SMEs in the food heritage industry still needs to be improved. A qualitative research design was proposed to investigate the matter, and a pilot study was initiated. This paper aims to understand opportunities in the heritage food industry and explore the challenges. Tourism SMEs of food heritage producers are the informants to understand their business. This pilot study was done to help researchers gain first-hand experience with the settings and data collection to strengthen their confidence in executing the research

The impact of ecotourism on community’s livelihood: A study on local community in Kadamaian, Sabah

Tourism has been an important alternative strategy for rural development through improving the economies and societies of the rural people. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of study on the impact of tourism development on community’s involvement and their livelihood. This paper explores from the local community’s point of view how tourism contributes as a new livelihood, in terms of changes in household income. Face-to-face structured interviews with 12 local communities from 6 ecotourism sites in Kadamaian, Sabah revealed that the economic status of the local communities interviewed are mainly ‘below than average’ that their income level is below the National Poverty Line Income (PLI). Two-thirds of them agreed there is an increase in their household income after joining the ecotourism-related business, mainly as small business owners, and some are part-time workers or helpers at the ecotourism sites. The findings also found that although respondent perceived ecotourism as important for livelihood, they are still ambivalent that tourism can alleviate poverty, which mainly caused by a lack of entrepreneurial skill. This study lends insights to ecotourism operator and policymakers to provide the local community with relevant capacity building and to ensure total support from other actors in the ecotourism supply chain, like NGOs, universities, volunteers, government, in line with the trickle-down concept of tourism i.e. tourism-led growth strategy (TLG)

Exploring tourist experiences in the lower Kinabatangan River, Sabah: evidence from online reviews

Global demand for wildlife tourism is rising and maintaining a positive tourist experience is essential to ensuring the industry's long-term survival. A top location for wildlife tourism, the Lower Kinabatangan River, located in Sabah, Malaysia, is impacted by its surroundings and requires careful management to maintain its reputation for offering pleasant wildlife tourist experiences. This paper aimed to explore tourist experiences in the Lower Kinabatangan River using user-generated content in Web reviews. This paper utilised 186 online reviews extracted from the TripAdvisor website and analysed the data with Leximancer software. Three themes were derived from the data analysis: river, monkey, and trip. The cloud-generated concepts were discussed through the tourist experience's services cape context. The result reveals that most tourist (87.63%) shows positive overall experiences; however, some do show concerns about the issue of rubbishes, dead fish in the river, the invasion of oil palm plantation, and forest destruction. The valuable insights offer a better understanding of the determinants of tourist experiences for the Lower Kinabatangan River to formulate strategies to increase their positive experiences and draw up alternatives to minimise the negative experiences

Rural tourism as a means of poverty alleviation A study of Kiulu Farmstay in Sabah

The study discovers the role of rural tourism as a means of poverty alleviation in Ulu Kiulu, Tuaran, Sabah through a qualitative study in Kiulu Farmstay. A preliminary site visit and key informant interview with the field coordinator of Kiulu Farmstay was conducted to explore the nature of tourism activities in the area and how the activities contribute to the socio-economic development of the local community in the village. The results suggest that tourism activities in Kiulu Farmstay have met the rural tourism concept in terms of the activities involved and the impact it has contributed to the local community through job opportunities, community empowerment, and household income. This study involved a single interview with the key informant in selected rural tourism destination in Sabah, thus the results might not be adequate to make general interpretations for a larger population. This study lends insights to some solutions on poverty alleviation in rural areas through rural tourism by suggesting to operators and policymakers that it is important to provide the local community with relevant capacity building and to ensure adequate support from other actors in the rural tourism supply chain, like NGOs, universities, volunteers, government, in line with the trickle-down concept of tourism. This study provides value as it is one of the very few studies which have investigated the economic and distributional impacts of rural tourism to the local community as the main beneficiaries, as well as stakeholders’ involvement in the development of tourism in the rural area