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Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik

This paper analyses the business practices among tour boat in Royal Belum and Temenggor (RBT) Forest Park, Malaysia, regarding the development of business and entrepreneurship based on tourism activities in protected areas. Series of questionnaire-guided interview and focus group meeting were carrie...

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Main Authors: Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam, Razak, Khamarrul Azahari, Omar, Siti Rohana, Robani, Anidah
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/1/KhairulHisyamKamarudin2014_BusinessPracticesAmongTourBoatOperators.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/
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spelling my.utm.609122017-08-30T07:43:35Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/ Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam Razak, Khamarrul Azahari Omar, Siti Rohana Robani, Anidah TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) This paper analyses the business practices among tour boat in Royal Belum and Temenggor (RBT) Forest Park, Malaysia, regarding the development of business and entrepreneurship based on tourism activities in protected areas. Series of questionnaire-guided interview and focus group meeting were carried out for information gathering processes. Ten boat operators and representatives from union for local tour boat operators in RBT have participated in the survey. The study indicated the local tour boat association has played a crucial role in safeguarding the welfare of boat operators by protecting local tourism market from outsiders (especially the foreign and big capital investors/companies) while making sure healthy competition among members. The study indicates that majority of local tour boat operators have started their business as worker for other tour boat operators, before slowly climbing the business ladder after capable to saving money and then renting or purchasing small size/capacity speedboats for a small scale operation. After being operating for a sometime, these small operators were able to create substantial internal funds normally from their savings and personal loans to re-invent for business expansion. In the case of RBT, it is worth mention that the local operators are a group of resilience tourism entrepreneurs whereby majority of them are considered as self-made entrepreneurs (learning through experience) without or with a minimal assistance and support from government agencies. In terms of operation, most of the local operators are utilizing modern technology especially internet for enabling them keeping up with market demand and expectation of potential tourists. Online booking may has increase interest among tourists where they can settle everything in a more convenient way before want to RBT. However, in light of positive prospects of tourism, this sector is facing challenges in making sure their businesses are making money to stay afloat such as seasonal pattern and issue of relocation to a ‘new’ temporary jetty which reduced the number of tourists’ to RBT significantly. Respondents also highlighted the issue of lack of involvement in marketing/promotional of tourism in RBT at international platform. The paper concludes with brief outlook on the future prospect of rural tourism program in fostering local tour boat operating businesses and entrepreneurship culture in the rich mega biodiversity area of Royal Belum. 2014 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/1/KhairulHisyamKamarudin2014_BusinessPracticesAmongTourBoatOperators.pdf Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam and Razak, Khamarrul Azahari and Omar, Siti Rohana and Robani, Anidah (2014) Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik. In: National Conference on Royal Belum 2014, 9-10 Dec, 2014, Perak, Malaysia.
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building UTM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.utm.my/
language English
topic TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
spellingShingle TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam
Razak, Khamarrul Azahari
Omar, Siti Rohana
Robani, Anidah
Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
description This paper analyses the business practices among tour boat in Royal Belum and Temenggor (RBT) Forest Park, Malaysia, regarding the development of business and entrepreneurship based on tourism activities in protected areas. Series of questionnaire-guided interview and focus group meeting were carried out for information gathering processes. Ten boat operators and representatives from union for local tour boat operators in RBT have participated in the survey. The study indicated the local tour boat association has played a crucial role in safeguarding the welfare of boat operators by protecting local tourism market from outsiders (especially the foreign and big capital investors/companies) while making sure healthy competition among members. The study indicates that majority of local tour boat operators have started their business as worker for other tour boat operators, before slowly climbing the business ladder after capable to saving money and then renting or purchasing small size/capacity speedboats for a small scale operation. After being operating for a sometime, these small operators were able to create substantial internal funds normally from their savings and personal loans to re-invent for business expansion. In the case of RBT, it is worth mention that the local operators are a group of resilience tourism entrepreneurs whereby majority of them are considered as self-made entrepreneurs (learning through experience) without or with a minimal assistance and support from government agencies. In terms of operation, most of the local operators are utilizing modern technology especially internet for enabling them keeping up with market demand and expectation of potential tourists. Online booking may has increase interest among tourists where they can settle everything in a more convenient way before want to RBT. However, in light of positive prospects of tourism, this sector is facing challenges in making sure their businesses are making money to stay afloat such as seasonal pattern and issue of relocation to a ‘new’ temporary jetty which reduced the number of tourists’ to RBT significantly. Respondents also highlighted the issue of lack of involvement in marketing/promotional of tourism in RBT at international platform. The paper concludes with brief outlook on the future prospect of rural tourism program in fostering local tour boat operating businesses and entrepreneurship culture in the rich mega biodiversity area of Royal Belum.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam
Razak, Khamarrul Azahari
Omar, Siti Rohana
Robani, Anidah
author_facet Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam
Razak, Khamarrul Azahari
Omar, Siti Rohana
Robani, Anidah
author_sort Kamarudin, Khairul Hisyam
title Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
title_short Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
title_full Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
title_fullStr Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
title_full_unstemmed Business practices among tour boat operators of Royal Belum-Temenggor, Gerik
title_sort business practices among tour boat operators of royal belum-temenggor, gerik
publishDate 2014
url http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/1/KhairulHisyamKamarudin2014_BusinessPracticesAmongTourBoatOperators.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/60912/
_version_ 1643655014429753344
score 13.211869

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