Editorial

Citation

Teare, R., Nair, V., Hussain, K., Chiun, L.M. and Ragavan, N.A. (2015), "Editorial", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 7 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-07-2015-0032

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Volume 7, Issue 5

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) encourages its theme editors to build on prior work and I am delighted to welcome back Vikneswaran Nair and Kashif Hussain, who reviewed contemporary approaches to rural tourism development in Malaysia (WHATT Volume 5, Number 4, 2013). Joined by May Chiun Lo and Neethiahanathan Ari Ragavan, they have developed their work in this issue by exploring how to benchmark innovation and new practices in rural tourism development in the Asian region. I would like to thank them and their writing team for another fascinating and comprehensive analysis of responsible rural tourism innovations in Asia.

WHATT aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development, and we seek to do this by using a key question to focus attention on an industry issue. If you would like to contribute to our work by serving as a WHATT theme editor, then do please contact me.

Richard Teare - Managing Editor, WHATT

Benchmarking innovations and new practices in rural tourism development: how do we develop more sustainable and responsible rural tourism?

Rural tourism is helping to transform the economic prospects of countries in Asia, and given the encouraging signs of progress, it is timely to benchmark and enable countries in the region to learn from one another. In this context, benchmarking facilitates comparison and provides a reference point against which other practices can be evaluated and further improved. It is clear from our analysis that countries in Asia and beyond are succeeding in developing responsible and innovative rural tourism products. By studying best practices and learning from them, better performance can be secured in Asia’s rural tourism destinations. To review progress, we set out to examine how to develop more sustainable and responsible rural tourism by benchmarking innovations and new practices in Asia. This prompted three research questions that are analyzed in this theme issue:

  RQ1. What are the emerging innovations and new approaches in rural tourism development?

  RQ2. What are the approaches that need to be adhered to for the sustainability of responsible rural tourism destinations?

  RQ3. How do we enhance the concept of sustainability and responsibility by benchmarking international best practices in managing rural tourism products and destinations?

A core component of this issue is a study that was based on Malaysian Government funding under the Long Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS) (2011-2016). Various stakeholders from Malaysia and other parts of the world were engaged to carry out the study to develop an innovative, multi-dimensional responsible rural tourism capacity framework. All our contributors were engaged in conferences and/or direct communication during the period of the project to help ensure that the objectives of this theme issue could be met.

Readers might also like to know that a series of Responsible Rural Tourism symposia has been running in Asia since 2011, so that researchers can share knowledge and discuss their findings, and in 2014, two international conferences were organized to disseminate key findings. These events were the Asia Pacific CHRIE Conference 2014 and the Asia-Euro Tourism, Culture and Gastronomy Conference 2014. Interactions arising from the various paper presentations, keynote addresses and panel discussions with stakeholders from industry and academia resulted in fruitful discussions and a better understanding of the challenges and the new practices that can help move rural tourism forward.

This theme issue contains eight articles that fully explore the three key questions cited above. This theme issue also reports on the experience of researchers in benchmarking innovative approaches to rural tourism development in both developing and developed nations. Case studies discussed include some of the best practices from Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, India, China and Chinese Taipei. Additionally, the issue explores some of the approaches that can be adopted by Asia from non-Asian countries – namely, from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Lesotho and Poland. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support and assistance provided by the Responsible Rural Tourism Network (RRTN) and the Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRIT). We hope that you will enjoy the outcomes.

Vikneswaran Nair, Kashif Hussain, May Chiun Lo and Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan - Theme Editors

About the Theme Editors

Vikneswaran Nair is a Professor at the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, Taylor’s University, Malaysia. He has PhD in Systems Engineering (Ecotourism Systems) and has more than 20-year research experience in the field of sustainable tourism and environmental management. A seasoned and award-winning researcher and consultant with more than 200 publications to his credit he was honoured as the Outstanding Young Malaysian of the Year Award recipient in 2006 and 2009. He is currently the Vice President of Malaysian Ecotourism Association, and he is leading one of the largest research grants to have been awarded to a private university in measuring the health of rural tourism destinations in Malaysia in terms of responsible tourism and carrying capacity.

Kashif Hussain is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism, Hospitality and Food Studies (CRiT) and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation for School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts at Taylor’s University, Malaysia. He holds a PhD degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Near East University, MSc degree in Tourism Management and BSc degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management from Eastern Mediterranean University. He has more than 12 years of teaching experience and is frequently called upon as an industry consultant. He is the author of more than 60 international refereed journal articles, book chapter(s) and international conference papers. His research interests include services management, hospitality and tourism marketing, tourist behaviour, sustainable tourism development and strategic management. He serves as a referee/editor/editorial board member to several international academic/scientific journals.

May Chiun Lo is an Associate Professor and Corporate MBA coordinator with the Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). She graduated with First Class Honours in Finance from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Herriot-Watt University, UK. Her PhD in e-Review of Tourism Research (eRTR) Management was awarded by Universiti Sains Malaysia. May Chiun’s areas of expertise include corporate leadership, strategic management, entrepreneurship, banking, financial management and tourism management. She has published more than 140 papers in many high impact journals. She has consistently won awards for her research work and has received numerous research and consultancy grants. May Chiun sits on the advisory panel of a number of State Government consultancy and community projects, UNIMAS and private corporations.

Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan has more than 18 years of academic experience. He holds a law degree, LLB (Hons) from the University of London UK, BA (Hons) Education from Universiti Sains Malaysia and a Master’s degree in Education (with Distinction) from Universiti Malaya. Ari Ragavan is also a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), awarded by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He is presently the Deputy President of Tourism Educator’s Association of Malaysia (TEAM) and Committee Member in Education and Training for the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). As the Dean of the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, his recent achievements include confirmation by the Ministry of Higher Education; Malaysia as the first and only Institution in the country to have achieved Tier-6 Outstanding Rating for D-SETARA (Hospitality and Tourism Discipline). In addition to a number of publications, he is an active consultant and has secured various project grants from public and private sectors.