Community involvement in Tioman Island Tourist Entrepreneurship and the Role of Tourism Incentives

Abstract

The development of tourism activities based on community involvement is able to strengthening particular industries and institutions in the society. This is due to existence of cooperation among them to highlight the unique features of the society besides gaining economic, social and cultural advantages.   This study aims to investigate the involvement of local communities in Pulau Tioman in the tourism sector and to identify whethertourism incentives provided by the government facilitate the development of tourism entrepreneurship in Tioman Island. Research findings showed that tourism development in Tioman Island managed  to attractparticipation of local communities in various tourism sub-sectors such as  accommodation, catering(restaurants), and other tourism supportive services. However, the available incentives are not of a great help to develop local  tourism entrepreneurial venture. This is mainly because majority of entrepreneurs are notaware of these incentives and not knowing their term and conditions. After giving information about theseincentives many entrepreneurs realized their useful to them. However, it is recommended that the governmentshould provide soft loans to tour operators especially in the accommodation and transport sub-sectors whichinvolve many tourism entrepreneurs.