TOURISM BUSINESS PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE TO CRISIS: A STUDY OF SMALL TOURISM RESORT DESTINATIONS IN SABAH COASTAL, MALAYSIA

Abstract

This study examines small-scale tourism businesses preparedness and resilience to crisis among resort destination in the coastal area of Sabah. Limited efforts are taken by the small coastal tourism business operators in term of level of preparedness of measures in dealing with crisis faced. Although these small coastal tourism business operators have experienced crisis events, majority of them do not have crisis management plan. Therefore, this study presents empirical findings from structured interviews with 61 owner-managers of small resorts in coastal Sabah, about the level of preparedness and resilience towards crisis including natural disaster, technology failure and social threats, as well as factors influence or hinder the adoption of crisis preparedness measures into their premises. The results revealed that micro-sized resorts are less likely well-prepared and resilient to crisis, compared to medium size, specifically due to lack of operationalisation of crisis management practices and the management of human resources for crisis management. The study also found that regular security inspection on respondents‟ commercial properties area from police department and Department of Occupational Safety and Health as the most popular factor mentioned by respondents as to support the adoption of crisis preparedness measures in their premises. Meanwhile, financial constraint was mostly mentioned as the hindrance factor for not adopting the crisis preparedness measures. This study hopes to provide meaningful insights for tourism specific initiatives that complement to existing disaster management policy as well as to small resort operators to consider a formal crisis management plan for long term business sustainability