Tourism in Malaysia is a contributing factor in the Government’s Economic Transformation Programme. Led by Dato' Sri Idris Jala, the chief executive officer of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU), part of this aim is to grow and nourish the tourism industry in Malaysia, including Sarawak. This paper leverages a chain concept to dissect the areas of enhancement opportunities for homestay operators in Bario. The quantitative research method is used determine the current expectation and satisfaction levels of tourists in Bario based on several tourism dimensions including homestay operators’ services. A survey with mainly closed ended questions was developed and distributed. 235 legible and valid responses were received. Respondents provided data of why they visited the Kelabit Highlands through a Likert scale driven questionnaire. The results from hypotheses testing were fully accepted after detailed analysis and testing. The study revealed a strong correlation between tourist expectations and satisfaction. The fulcrum which stands between tourists and their satisfaction levels predominantly lies in the influence of homestay operators. As it stands, the homestay operators’ role is a very important aspect n tourism delivery. Homestay operators are poised as an added catalyst for socio economic development for Bario and its community.
Amir, A. F., Abdul Ghapar, A., Salmiah, A., Jamal. & Ahmad, K. H. (2015). Sustainable Tourism Development: A Study on Community Resilience for Rural Tourism in Malaysia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 168 (0), 116-122. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.217.
Mohsen, A. S., (2015, October 20). Tourism Now 6th Largest Contributor to Economy. The Sun.
Campo-Martínez, S. J. B., Garau-Vadell & Martínez-Ruiz, M. P. (2010). Factors influencing repeat visits to a destination: The influence of group composition. Tourism Management, 31 (6), 862-870. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.08.013.
Chang, J. C. (2009). Taiwanese tourists' perceptions of service quality on outbound guided package tours: A qualitative examination of the SERVQUAL dimensions. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 15(2), 165-178.
Collier, D. A. & Evans, J. R. (2007). Operations Management: Goods, Services and Value Chain. (2nd ed.). Mason, USA: Thomson South-Western.
Economics Trading. (2015). Malaysia GDP Annual Growth Rate. Trading Economics. Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/gdp-growth-annual.
Gallarza, M. G., Arteaga, F., Chiappa, G. D. & Saura, I. G. (2015). Value dimensions in consumers’ experience: Combining the intra- and inter-variable approaches in the hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 47(0), 140-150. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.03.007.
Harris, R. W. (2009). Tourism in Bario, Sarawak, Malaysia: A Case Study of Pro-poor Community-based Tourism Integrated into Community Development. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 14(2), 125-135. doi: 10.1080/10941660902847179.
Lo, M. C., Abang Azlan Mohamad, Songan, P. & Yeo, A. W. (2012). RURAL DESTINATIONS AND TOURISTS' SATISFACTION. Journal of Services Research, 11(2), 58-74.
Jamaludin, M., Othman, N., & Awang, A. R. (2012). Community Based Homestay Programme: A Personal Experience. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 42(0), 451-459. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.04.210.
Oakland, J. S. (2014). Total Quality Management and Operational Excellence : Text with cases (4th ed). New York: Routledge.
Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. USA: The Free Press.
Ringgit, D. S. (2015, October 20). Supporting our Sarawak homestays. The Borneo. Retrieved from http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/10/02/supporting-our-sarawak-homestays/.
Journal of Vacation Marketing, 17(1), 5-15.
Falak, S., Lo, M. C., & Wee, A. Y. (2014). A Repositioning Strategy for Rural Tourism in Malaysia - Community's Perspective. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 144(0), 412-415. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.310.
Wang, L., Law, R., Hung, K. & Guillet, B. D. (2014). Consumer trust in tourism and hospitality: A review of the literature. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 21(0), 1-9. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2014.01.001.
In-Text Citation: (Yaacob et al., 2019)
To Cite this Article: Yaacob, R. A. I. B. R., Embong, A. M. Bin, Hashim, H. M., Beddelee, A. A. B. A. M., Spykerman, N. N., & Isnarti, R. (2019). Opportunities to Enhance Homestay Operators’ Value Chain in Bario. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(2), 1267–1277.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
