Challenges for Community Based Rural Tourism Continuity and Resilience in Disaster Prone Area: The Case of Mesilou, Sabah

Abstract

There is no doubt that the tourism sector has become one of the major contributors to development and considered as agent of change for many parts of the world. The strengths of tourism (or community based rural tourism, CBRT in this context) are described in various forms; as a tool in economic and physical development and as means to enhance the social and human capital development and conservation of natural environment. In rural areas especially in developing countries, tourism development had been eagerly embraced as a panacea for revitalising the rural economy, hence many government agencies, particularly tourism-related bodies, have also invested heavily to promote more sustainable forms of community-based tourism in rural areas. Under normal situation i.e. where CBRT is operated outside disaster prone areas or with notion of less considerations on reducing disaster risk in operating a tourism business, CBRT might flourish in rural areas, and in return would be able to secure local job creation, stable income generation, curbing outmigration among youths and workers, protecting natural resources and local culture, etc. As for CBRT programmes which are operating in disaster-prone areas, their operators might not share similar opinions as they have to cope with different issues and challenges, which in this context, challenges in generating sufficient income for sustaining their operation and also in reducing disaster risk and potential losses to their business. This paper will discuss possible challenges in sustaining CBRT programmes in disaster-prone areas based on the findings from data analysis of a case study of homestay operators in Mesilou Village in Sabah, Malaysia, particularly after the 2015 earthquake.