Social Media Attributes and Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Among Mah Meri Community in Carey Island, Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims to understand the role of social media in influencing the sustainable indigenous tourism practice. This research contributes to the scope of indigenous tourism and social media. A deductive approach is used to identify the level of the social media attributes, namely adoption, participation, interactivity and sharing. Past studies relevant to social media technology and sustainability were analysed and discussed. It is evident that the existing literature heavily supports the need for social media in tourism development. Local communities, especially the indigenous people, are urged to utilise the virtual platform to sell their tourism products. However, the unavailability of community capacity often hinders them to used social media at the desired level. Thus, a critical understanding of social media and sustainable tourism conceptualisation is highlighted to provide a holistic perspective. The construct of social media in this study shows a high level of consistency. The finding contributes to a scale development on social media and tourism from indigenous people perspectives.