Tanjung Datu National Park, Sarawak: Communities’ Perceptions towards Its Rural Competitive Advantage

Abstract

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.

Community’s experiential knowledge on the development of rural tourism competitive advantage: a study on Kampung Semadang – Borneo Heights, Sarawak

“…This study also supports H3 . The findings for environmental impacts were consistent with the findings from a study done in Tanjung Datu (Lo et al , 2015). This is due to the similarity of nature-based setting of tourism at both locations.…”

“…Lack of knowledge and capabilities to manage stakeholder relationship affected local community perception, where there was less or no stakeholder involvement in tourism development. The finding was contradicted with the study in Tanjung Datu (Lo et al , 2015) of which stakeholders play a major role in creating the source of competitive advantage for rural tourism.…”

Socio-Economic Factors and Rural Competitive Advantage: The Moderating Role of Economic Literacy

“…Rural tourism is a rapidly expanding tourism segment with the potential to contribute to economic growth (Lo et al, 2015). However, the development of rural tourism destinations must be carried out in a way that maximizes the objectives of competitive advantage (Neto, 2003;Sharpley, 2002).…”

“…However, the development of rural tourism destinations must be carried out in a way that maximizes the objectives of competitive advantage (Neto, 2003;Sharpley, 2002). The findings showed that stakeholder involvement in tourism, community knowledge about tourism and the environmental impact of tourism has a significant positive impact on rural competitive advantage, while the economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism, as well as community support for tourism have little influence (Lo et al, 2015;Stylidis et al, 2014).…”

“…The involvement in tourism development can also be beneficial in many purposes such as create effective environmental management built on original, local and scientific knowledge, economic development, social empowerment, protection cultural heritage and the creation of interpretive and natural-based experiences for learning tourism and cross-cultural appreciation (Jamal & Stronza 2009;Warouw et al, 2019). Lo et al (2015) suggested that rural tourism is rapidly growing with the potential to contribute to economic growth. In order for rural tourism to succeed, it must be competitive within the overall tourism sector.…”