Rural tourism has been shown to benefit local communities from the economic perspective. Digital marketing allows marketing information to be transmitted directly to potential visitors without the need for an intermediary, in a low-cost but effective way. Rural tourism destinations in Sarawak now have an opportunity to benefit from the Sarawak state government's initiative, the Digital Sarawak Centre of Excellence, in terms of digital content creation and website maintenance. However, the current level of adoption is zero to minimal in rural tourism destinations. This study examines the barriers towards digital marketing adoption from the perspective of rural tourism providers. Fieldwork was performed at two sites, Ba'kelalan and Long Lamai, in July 2016 and February 2017 respectively. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 19 respondents. The study revealed that tourism providers currently depended on word-ofmouth recommendations or direct contact for bookings, but were willing to adopt digital marketing with the assistance of knowledgeable parties. However, certain physical, logistical and social constraints may have a detrimental effect on the community's readiness level to entertain tourists on a larger scale and may further impede the overall progress of digital marketing adoption, at both the individual and destination levels.
The future of marketing will be a battle of brands and destination branding is arguably the tourism industry’s biggest challenge (Pike, 2005). Marketing a destination consistently over time is critical to the success of destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and destination marketing companies (DMCs). However, media and market proliferation and clusterisation creates a high risk of contrary and confusing messages. This research paper reports on the findings of a two year study on the promotion of transportation in tourism development in Malaysia which examined the challenges involved in distributing a strong and consistent image of a destination. Key issues identified include the complexity of relationships which co-exist in the marketing of a tourism destination, its place image and conflicting messages. A qualitative approach to in-depth interviews was conducted with key respondents who were policy makers, tour and travel agents, non-government organisations, and residents in Malaysia. The empirical evidence has shown that policy makers in Government, although receptive to the promotion of tourism, are not entirely aware of the roles each is involved in the distribution of a strong and consistent image of place in the marketing of tourism in Malaysia.
Rural tourism is a rapidly growing tourism segment and has been given increasing importance, in view of its potential to contribute economic growth to the rural areas. However, any rural tourism destination development should be implemented in a way that maximises destination performance. In our study, we examine the relationship between support and participation of the local government, community leadership in tourism, community attitudes towards tourism, and community support towards tourism with destination performance (from the economic, socio-cultural and environmental aspects), from the local community perspective. We obtained, as voluntary respondents, 176 residents of a local community at a rural tourism destination in Sabah, Malaysia. SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied to assess the developed model. Thereafter, to generate the standard error of the estimate and t-values, bootstrapping with 200 re-samples was applied. The findings suggested that community attitudes and community leadership in tourism have a significant positive impact on destination performance, whereas local government participation and support, and community support for tourism, had little impact on the same. Implications of these findings were further discussed.
Rural tourism is a rapidly growing tourism segment and has been given increasing importance, in view of its potential to contribute economic growth to the rural areas. However, any rural tourism destination development should be implemented in a way that maximizes destination competitive advantage. This study examine the relationship between stakeholder involvement, community knowledge about tourism, and the economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts on tourism with rural competitive advantage, as perceived by the local community. This study obtained, as voluntary respondents, 87 residents of a rural tourism destination in Sarawak, Malaysia. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied based on path modelling and then bootstrapping with 200 re-samples was applied to generate the standard error of the estimate and t-values. The findings suggested that stakeholder involvement in tourism, community knowledge about tourism and the environmental impact of tourism have had a significant positive impact on rural competitive advantage, whereas economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism, as well as community support for tourism, had little impact on the same. Lastly, such study would benefit the tourism implementers and decision-makers in tourism industry, in the sense that tourism activity can be proactively detected and curbed once critical mass is reached.
Malaysian charities have been reported to face problems in raising funds in the face of the current challenging economic environment. Some evidence has been provided by past research, in for-profit organisations, on the influence of accountability, financial management capacity, own income generation and revenue diversification on financial performance. This study examines their impact on non-profit financial sustainability, utilising as sample 212 active charities in 2017. The quantitative approach is adopted whereby data on financial management capacity, accountability, own income generation and revenue diversification, and their inter-relationships, were tested for strength and influence of the relationships, if any, with financial sustainability. Analysis of data was performed using the structural equation modeling method using lavaan on R. Global fit values (RMSEA = 0.00; SRMR = 0.04) showed a good model fit and standardised residuals justified retaining the model at the pairing levels of the observed variables; as such the original model is retained and not respecified. The findings suggest positive and significant indirect relationships between financial management capacity and accountability with the financial sustainability, as mediated by revenue diversification and own income generation. The implications and contributions arising from the findings are also discussed.
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