Malaysian homestay experience programme: A qualitative investigation on operator's crisis management practices and resiliency strategies

Abstract

Understanding the specific crisis management practices and resilience strategies homestay operators adopt during a crisis is critical. Currently, it is an area that remains under-researched despite the growing importance of resilience in community-based tourism operations. As such, this study investigates the crisis management practices and strategies for resiliency that homestay operators adopt during a health crisis. This qualitative study has been conducted via semi-structured interviews among ten prominent homestay operators in Malaysia. The thematic data analysis using an inductive approach was employed to ensure the transferability of the findings. The study found that marketing initiatives, pandemic prevention measures, maintenance practices, and government assistance were the best crisis management practices homestay operators could implement during the pandemic phase. Homestay operators have adopted four resilience strategies to survive after the pandemic: for other creative business opportunities, government assistance, use of technology innovation, togetherness in mitigating the pandemic, and industry engagement and collaboration. The results provide comprehensive strategies to the policymakers and industry stakeholders to strengthen homestay businesses in the future. Such understanding enables government efforts to maintain CBT sustainability, which is in line with the National Tourism Policy (2020–2030) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 (No Poverty), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). The results are also expected to assist homestay operators in re-strategizing and striving toward recovery and resiliency after the crisis.