Malaysia introduced a minimum wage law in 2012 which became operative in the hospitality industry on October 1, 2013. This article examines the perceptions of hospitality employees toward the minimum wage policy. The findings suggest that most employees do not believe that the minimum wage will significantly improve the salary levels in the hospitality industry. Indeed, there are government guidelines that allow hospitality operators to restructure pay components to meet the minimum wage rate. In particular, all or part of the service charge may now be converted to form part of basic salaries. Consequently, increase in basic salaries may not necessarily lead to increase in total salaries. Employees also believe that hospitality operators may reduce or eliminate fringe benefits and, therefore, negate the benefit of minimum wage.

This paper examines an indigenous community’s perception of community-based tourism (CBT), using the revised social exchange theory (SET) that recognizes the limits of rationality in explaining behaviour and therefore integrates other exchange rules. Unlike most quantitative SET studies that describe residents’ perception without explaining the root cause; this qualitative study investigates prior conditioning from socio-cultural background and potential biased information processing as the underlying reasons of residents’ perception. An indigenous community’s negative perception may be caused by long standing disruption of livelihood from human-wildlife conflict and other non-tourism causes. Livelihood losses aggravate socio-economic deprivations and magnify the expectation for income replacement, such that where tourism income is inadequate, the perceived costs of tourism is amplified. Managing income expectation is therefore crucial in CBT planning. An over-optimistic representation of CBT as a source of livelihood may diminish the role of tourism in conservation conflict management.

The study examined the dual governance of ecotourism in Belum-Temengor Forest Reserve, Malaysia, through the qualitative method whereby 29 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with stakeholders of the ecotourism sector in the locality. Two distinct institutional arrangements resulted when one third of the forest reserve was declared the Royal Belum State Park and the Perak State Parks Corporation (PSPC) designated for its environmental management. By contrast, there was no lead institution for Temengor, where licensed logging also took place. The findings showed that the status/categorisation of forest land, the prioritisation of conservation and the presence of a lead institution significantly affected the ecotourism governance of a locality. The PSPC’s effective stewardship ensured that ecotourism was conducted sustainably at the state park, but the lack of a Temengor lead institution resulted in unregulated visitor entries and poor solid waste disposal in Temengor forest sites. The study contributes to the tourism governance discourse in Malaysia by highlighting the undesirability of a dual governance structure premised on unequal status of the ecotourism destinations involved. The study also demonstrates the need for leadership and multi-actors’ collaboration in the environmental management of ecotourism destinations.

This qualitative study conducted in Malaysia’s Belum-Temengor Forest Reserve applies the concept of indigeneity as a social construct to examine status ascription by two competing groups: the Orang Asli and the Malays. Through indigeneity, the Orang Asli assert themselves as the rightful inhabitants of Belum-Temengor and brand the Malays as outsiders. By contrast, the Malays downplay indigeneity and describe themselves as ‘the locals’ whose entrepreneurism should be lauded. Tourism in Belum-Temengor influences the discourse of indigeneity in two paradoxical ways – it reinforces the Orang Asli’s indigeneity by accentuating the indigenous culture in tourism products; but it also exerts the pressure of assimilation as a pre-condition of participation. The theoretical implication lies in demonstrating that the interplay of indigeneity influences the socio-psychological boundary of a community, such that a group that sees itself as part of a community is considered by the competing group to be the outsider.

This qualitative study applies the labour market segmentation theory to examine tourism job losses through the indirect causes of pay cuts, unpaid leave and the take-up of side hustle – accepted by the employees partly from loyalty, camaraderie and empathy. Where the prolonged hardship from these measures leads to resignations, employers gain from the avoidance of termination benefits mandated by a retrenchment exercise. The losses occasioned to the worker include the non-eligibility for state-funded wage subsidy and foregone termination benefits. Through a legal analysis of COVID-19 job losses, the study posits that tourism workers’ lack of rights awareness contributed to the voluntary acceptance of these lawful but detrimental strategies.