The Determinants of Business Performance of Homestay Operators in Rural Tourism in Sarawak with Moderating Impact of Digital Technologies.

Jason, Lim (2023) The Determinants of Business Performance of Homestay Operators in Rural Tourism in Sarawak with Moderating Impact of Digital Technologies. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

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Abstract

Tourism has been known as the green industry in the microeconomic point of view though in mass tourism or rural tourism. However, though Sarawak has carried many powerful resources yet the tourism industry in this state is somehow still very much underdeveloped. Therefore, the moderator should be considered and introduced to the industry to boost the tourism industry in the state of Sarawak. Rural tourism is somehow not a new form of tourism experience, it has indeed existed in western countries decades ago. It is a booming industry or baby boomer for Sarawak in which Sarawak tourism board and related agencies aim to promote and make it a unique and intend to sell it globally. First and foremost, homestay operators tend to be the first entrepreneurs to treasure and explore such business as there have been no luxurious hotels established in the remote and rural areas. Hence, besides road show promotion and marketing planning from the tourism board; digital technologies will be the next effective tool to promote and sell rural tourism to achieve its competitiveness. As such, digital is powerful and virtual, it will efficiently and effectively be crafted as the most and powerful instrument to market and sell rural tourism of Sarawak. This study has focused on homestay operation in rural tourism and the study investigates the relationship between economic, environmental, and socio-cultural factors of homestay operation towards its performance in Sarawak. A quantitative study has been carried out to obtain the data from the accommodation aspect – homestay operators. There are 241 valid responses collected for the study. Measurement model assessment and structural model assessment have been applied to analyse the constructs and path relationship of the study. The relationships between independent and dependent variables have been investigated and are anticipated to be a useful source of reference to the academic researchers, tourism authorities and other tourism stakeholders to further carry out investigation to bring out the positive impacts of the rural tourism industry in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings have shown that the main pillars of tourism attributes (economics, environmental and socio-cultural factors) were only partially but significantly affecting the performance of tourism in Sarawak, either financially or non-financially; based on the literature studied from past researchers, the moderator introduced to this framework should be able to enhance the relationships of independent variables and dependant variable. However, the results obtained were not as expected, the reasons could not deter by education level, technology infrastructure, promotion, funds projection and other factors. Keywords: Homestay operators’ performance, tourism factors, digital technologies, rural tourism, Sarawak.

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