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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 144 (2014) 60 65

5th Asia Euro Conference 2014

The impact of local communities involvement and relationship

quality on sustainable rural tourism in rural area, Sarawak. The
moderating impact of self-efficacy
Fong Sook Funa,*, Lo May Chiunb, Peter Songanc, Vikneswaran Naird
a
Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations (ISITI), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sar awak, Malaysia
b
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
c
Department of Human Resource Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
d
School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, Taylors University, No.1, Jalan Taylors, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

Tourism is recognized as a major growth engine for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation especially in rural
destinations. Nonetheless, tourism has negative impact on these rural destinations. As a result, local communities attitudes and
perceptions toward tourism development are one of the important indicators for sustainable tourism development (Choi &
Sirakaya, 2006). Besides, peoples belief about their ability to influence the events is important in order to influence the
outcomes (Bandura, 1994). Thus, this study attempts to examine the relationship between local communities involvement,
relationship quality and sustainable rural tourism with self-efficacy as a moderator in the context of tourism industry in Sarawak.
The findings of this study will demonstrate a preliminary conceptual framework on local communities involvement, relationship
quality and sustainable rural tourism and how self-efficacy moderate the relationship between local communities involvement,
relationship quality and sustainable rural tourism in Sarawak.
2014
2014 The Authors.
Elsevier Published
Ltd. This by Elsevier
is an open Ltd. under the CC BY-NC-ND license
access article
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of Asia Euro Conference 2014.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of 5AEC2014.
Keywords: Local Community; Involvement; Relationship Quality; Self-efficacy; Sustainable Rural Tourism; Sarawak

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-012-228-1673

E-mail address: elsiefong25@gmail.com

1877-0428 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of 5AEC2014.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.274
 Fong Sook Fun et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 144 (2014) 60 65 61

1. Main text

Tourism has been recognized for its vast contribution to the economy in many countries in which tourism
contributes to economic diversification, profitability, and employment opportunity for a country (Ismail & Turner,
2008). Nonetheless, researchers in the past have noted that local communities attitudes and perceptions toward
tourism development and tourist fluctuate between the negative and positive (Harrill & Potts, 2003). Besides, the
economic impacts are perceived mostly positive while sociocultural, legal, and environmental impacts, are viewed
as negative (Tosun, 2002). Thus, it is important to understand local communities involvement and relationship
quality and how it will impact the sustainability of rural tourism in Sarawak

2. Objective

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between local communities involvement and
relationship quality on sustainable rural tourism (social, cultural, economic, and environmental) with self-efficacy as
a moderator in rural areas of Sarawak.

3. Literature Review

3.1. Local Communities Attitude

Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degrees of favor
or disfavor (Early & Chaiken, 1993). Therefore, it is essential to understand local communities attitude because an
understanding of local communities attitudes allows tourism stakeholders to adopt an adequate responsive
mechanism to the negative influences that arise from tourism (Sharma & Dyer, 2009).

3.2. Local Communities Perception

Perception can be refer to attitudes (Lindberg & Johnson, 1997), residents opinions (Williams & Lawson,
2001), or reactions (Fredline & Faulkner, 2000). Therefore, local communities perceptions of the cost and
benefits of tourism is the major factor in tourist satisfaction and are important for the success of the tourism industry
(Andriotis & Vaughan, 2003).

3.3. Local Communities Involvement

Community involvement can be defined as the magnitude to which the residents are involved in the daily
activities within the communities that they live in (Lee, 2013). Hence, tourism development will be more successful
with the involvement of the local communities as their perception and attitudes are important for the decision
makers to achieve sustainable rural tourism (Eshliki & Kaboudi, 2012).

3.4. Relationship Quality

Relationship quality is used to establish long-term relationship with the customers and generate favorable
outcomes (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Relationship quality consists of three dimensions, namely trust, commitment,
and satisfaction (Chen, Chen, Chen, & Wey, 2011). Thus, relationship quality is salient for the vendor to assess the
nature and the intensity of customer relationships and to develop a competitive advantage which is difficult to
duplicate (Wong, Hung, & Chow, 2007).
62 Fong Sook Fun et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 144 (2014) 60 65

3.5. Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to peoples judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required
to attain designated types of performances (Bandura, 1986). Thus, it is important to understand local communities
self-efficacy and its relation to achievement outcomes.

3.6. Rural Tourism

Rural tourism located in remote countryside, far away from neighbours (Pesonen, et al., 2011). A recent study
reported that rural tourism was an increasingly popular tool of state economic development agencies that use to
increase the income of rural inhabitants (Pakurar & Olah, 2008).

3.7. Sustainable Rural Tourism

Sustainable tourism can be defined as tourism which is developed and maintained in an area (community or
environment) in such a manner that it remains viable over an infinite period and does not degrade or alter the
environment (human or physical) in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful development and
well-being of other activities and processes (Butler, 1991). Social, cultural, economic and environmental dimensions
are often used to measure sustainability of a rural tourism (WTO, 2004). Some of the literature that has focused on
these dimensions includes the following:

3.7.1. Social

Murphy (1985) defines tourism as a sociocultural event for all of the stakeholders. However, tourism
development at rural area has led to changes in the structure of the society in positive (Lankford, 1994) and negative
ways (Ap & Crompton, 1993). Hence, it is important that social impacts of tourism should be considered throughout
the planning process so that benefits can be optimized (Brunt & Courtney, 1999).

3.7.2. Cultural

Cultural impact resulted from tourism has long term effect and will cause changes in a societys values, beliefs,
and cultural practices especially in rural tourism destinations (Brunt & Courtney, 1999). Therefore, cultural impact
of tourism should be considered throughout the planning process of all rural destinations.

3.7.3. Economic

Positive economic aspect of rural tourism development increased employment opportunities and economic
growth (Akkawi, 2010). On the contrary, rural tourism development can bring negative economic impact such as
increased of land prices to other rural tourism destinations (Ap & Crompton, 1998). Benefits accrued to a minority
of the host population will lead to negative attitude and perception among the stakeholders (Easterling, 2004).
Hence, equality in benefits distribution is essential in order for the local communities to have positive perception
towards rural tourism in their community.

3.7.4. Environmental

In todays community, food safety and environmental friendliness are the most common reason used as an
important motive in influencing tourist to visit a destination (Widyasari & Haryanto, 2010). However, mass tourism
affects the natural resources of a community. Consequently, local community seems reticent and discontent with the
tourism development projects (Mason & Cheyne, 2000). Thus, local communities involvement and relationship
quality is crucial if rural tourism is to be sustainable.
 Fong Sook Fun et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 144 (2014) 60 65 63

3.8. Stakeholders

Stakeholders refer to those that have legitimate interest in an organization (Donaldson & Preston, 1995). In this
study, rural tourism stakeholders refer to local communities that affect or are affected by the achievement in tourism
industry (Byrd, et al., 2009). Community refers to the residents who live in a destination that have direct
involvement in an activity or project (Akkawi, 2010).

3.9. Conceptualising the Framework

The framework will evaluate the relationship between the identified independent variables, dependent variables
and moderator, as shown in Figure 1:

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

Community Involvement
in Tourism Activities
x Participation in decision
making Sustainable Rural Tourism
x Knowledge sharing
x Empowerment
x Level of knowledge x Social
about tourism industry x Cultural
x Economic
x Environmental
Relationship Quality with
the stakeholders
x Trust
x Commitment
x Satisfaction

Self-Efficacy

Moderator

Fig. 1. Conceptual Framework

Smart Partial Least Squares M3 (SmartPLS) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0 can be used to
analyze the data that will be collected for the study.
64 Fong Sook Fun et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 144 (2014) 60 65

4. Potential Contribution

This study has a number of theoretical and practical potential contributions for both scholars and practitioners,
particularly in the domain of tourism stakeholders. For theoretical perspective, this study provides basis for the
researchers to further test on the integrated relationship between local communitys involvement and relationship
quality on sustainable rural tourism with self-efficacy as a moderator in the context of tourism industry in Sarawak.
From the practical perspective, the findings in this study can provide valuable information to the tourism
stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable tourism in general and rural tourism in particular. Hence, this study is
useful for tourism stakeholders to understand the importance of local communities involvement and relationship
quality with self-efficacy as the moderator to sustain and achieve competitive advantage in rural tourism.

5. Conclusion

In sum, it is important to understand local communities involvement and relationship quality in tourism industry.
This is so because they are the key players in tourism development that will lead to favorable or unfavorable tourism
performance (Tatolu, et al., 2000).

Acknowledgements

Long Term Research Grant Scheme 2011 [LRGS grant no: JPT.S (BPKI)2000/09/01/015Jld..4(67)]

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