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REFRAMING INDIGENOUS TOURISM ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSONALITY,

EXPERIENCE, SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND CHALLENGES IN COMMUNITY-BASED

TOURISM-RELATED BUSINESS

WRITTEN BY: MOHD HAFIZ HANAFIAH, NOROL HAMIZA ZAMZURI, TENGKU INTAN SUZILA TENGKU SHARIF, BUNG-ON
CHARTRUNGRUANG

This study investigates the Malaysian Mah Meri Indigenous tourism entrepreneur’s personality, experience, sense of community traits and
current challenges in community-based tourism-related businesses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from ten
indigenous tourism entrepreneurs. Data were analysed using the NVivo 11 software. The qualitative content analysis found three broad
themes. First, we found that the Mah Meri community possess unique self-efficacy personality characteristics, significantly predicting their
unsustainable entrepreneurial behaviours. Secondly, they are willing to share their values, beliefs, and interests in their business offerings,
which reflect their sense of community. Even with considerable entrepreneurial experience through learning from local wisdom and
upskilling efforts by the government, we found that the community limitation mainly concerns the lack of early education, uninventive
entrepreneurship practices and financial assistance. This study provides an improved understanding of the Indigenous business environment
for policymakers and indigenous entrepreneurs. We found entrepreneurial personality, experience, sense of community determine and
structure their community-based tourism entrepreneurial activities.This study provides a new perspective on Indigenous tourism
entrepreneurs’ personalities, experiences, sense of community traits and challenges. The study also suggests encouraging sustainable
Indigenous entrepreneurship practices for economic development, self-determination and community sustainability.