Abstract
Rooted in the Sustainable Livelihood Approach, this paper contributes to the current debate on e-tourism for development by analysing the use of ICTs in community-based tourism micro enterprises. Using a qualitative case study approach with semi structured interviews, observations and documentary evidence, this study sheds light on the importance of ICTs in homestays and analyses its impact on the five livelihood assets (i.e. human, natural, financial, physical, social) as perceived by Malaysian homestay managers. Results indicate that there are significant direct and indirect impacts of ICTs on the livelihood assets of the community and open the floor for further research in the field.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agyeiwaah, E., Akyeampong, O., Amenumey, E.K.: International tourists’ motivations to choose homestay: do their socio-demographics have any influence? Tour. Hosp. Res. 13(1), 16–26 (2014)
Akama, J.S., Kieti, D.: Tourism and socio-economic development in developing countries: a Case study of Mombasa resort in Kenya. J. Sustain. Tour. 15, 735–748 (2007)
Alkire, S.: The missing dimensions of poverty data: introduction to the special issue. Oxf. Dev. Stud. 35(4), 347–359 (2007)
Ashley, C., Roe, D.: Making tourism work for the poor: strategies and challenges in Southern Africa. Dev. S. Afr. 19(1), 61–82 (2002)
Blanchflower, D.G., Oswald, A.J.: Policy forum : some policy implications of behavioural economics happiness and the human development index : the paradox of Australia. Soc. Res. 38(3), (2005)
Bradbury-Huang, H.: What is good action research?: why the resurgent interest? Act. Res. 8(1), 93–109 (2010)
Carney, D., Drinkwater, M., Neefjes, K., Rusinow, T., Wanmali, S., Singh, N.: Livelihoods Approaches Compared. DFID, London (1999)
Chambers, R., Conway, G.R.: Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century. Discussion paper 296, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, (1991)
Din, K.H.: Tourism in Malaysia competing needs in a plural society. Ann. Tour. Res. 9(3), 453–480 (1982)
Duncombe, R.: Using the livelihoods framework to analyze ICT applications for poverty reduction through microenterprise. Inf. Technol. Int. Dev. 3(3), 81–100 (2007)
Hall, C.M.: Pro-poor tourism: do “tourism exchanges benefit primarily the countries of the south”. Curr. Issues Tour. 10(2–3), 111–118 (2007)
Hall, D., Richards, G.: Tourism and sustainable community development. Routledge Adv. Tour. 17(4), 314 (2000)
Hardy, A., Beeton, R.J.S., Pearson, L.: Sustainable tourism: an overview of the concept and its position in relation to conceptualisations of tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 10(6), 475–496 (2002)
Harris, R.W.: Tourism in Bario, Sarawak, Malaysia: a case study of pro-poor community-based tourism integrated into community development. Asia Pac. J. Tour. Res. 14(2), 125–135 (2009)
Heeks, R., Duncombe, R.: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Poverty Reduction and Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs): A Framework for Understanding ICT applications for MSMEs in Developing Countries. World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), Tunis, pp. 16–18 November (2005)
Hsieh, H.-F., Shannon, S.E.: Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qual. Health Res. 15(9), 1277–1288 (2005)
Inversini, A., Rega, I.: eTourism for socio-economic development, 1, 75–82 (2016). http://symphonya.unimib.it/
Inversini, A., Rega, I., Pereira, I. N., Bartholo, R.: The rise of e-tourism for development. In: Tussyadiah, I., Inversini A. (eds.) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015 pp. 419–431. Springer International Publishing, New York (2015)
Kakwani, N., Pernia, E.M.: What is pro-poor growth? Asian Dev. Rev. 18(1), (2000)
Kim, K., Uysal, M., Sirgy, M.J.: How does tourism in a community impact the quality of life of community residents? Tour. Manag. 36, 527–540 (2013)
Kondracki, N.L., Wellman, N.S.: Content Analysis: review of methods and their applications in nutrition education. J. Nutr Educ Behav 34, 224–230 (2002)
Lo, M.-C., Songan, P., Mohammad, A.A.: Rural tourism and destination image: community perception in tourism planning. Macrotheme Rev. 2(1), 102–118 (2013)
Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Comission: Commun. Multimed. Facts Fig. Q3 (2016)
Nash, D.: Tourism as a form of imperialism. Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, pp. 37–52. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (1989)
Parkinson, S., Ramirez, R.: Using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assess the impact of ICTs in development. J. Commun. Inf. 2(3), 116–127 (2006)
Rega, I., Inversini, A.: eTourism for development (eT4D): the missing piece in the ICT4D research agenda. Inf. Technol. Int. Dev. 12(3), 19–24 (2016)
Richards, L.: Handling Qualitative Data, 2nd Edn. SAGE Publications Ltd, London -England (2010)
Scheyvens, R.: Exploring the tourism-poverty Nexus. Curr. Issues Tour. 10(2–3), 231–254 (2007)
Sen, A.K.: Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK (2001)
Spencer, A.J., Buhalis, D., Moital, M.: A hierarchical model of technology adoption for small owner-managed travel firms: an organizational decision-making and leadership perspective. Tour. Manag. 33(5), 1195–1208 (2012)
Stoll, K., Menou, M., Camacho, K., Khellady, Y. Learning about ICT’s role in development: A framework towards a participatory, transparent and continuous process. Ottawa (2002)
Tao, T.C.H., Wall, G.: A livelihood approach to sustainability. Asia Pac. J. Tour. Res. 14(2), 137–152 (2009)
Tourism Malaysia, M.: Tourism Malaysia: Facts and Figures Overview 2016
Weber, R.P.: Basic Content Analysis 2nd edn. SAGE Publications Inc, Newbury Park, CA (1990)
Zapata, M.J., Hall, C.M., Lindo, P., Vanderschaeghe, M.: Can community-based tourism contribute to development and poverty alleviation? Lessons from Nicaragua. Curr. Issues Tour. 14(8), 725–749 (2011)
Zhao, W., Ritchie, J.R.B.: Tourism and poverty alleviation: an integrative research framework. Curr. Issues Tour. 10(2–3), 119–143 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gan, S.W., Inversini, A., Rega, I. (2018). Tourism, Development and Digital Technologies: Insights from Malaysian Homestays. In: Stangl, B., Pesonen, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72922-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72923-7
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)