Abstract

The current Covid-19 pandemic has impacted tourism industry the hardest and has steered a total standstill in the multibillion industry, causing economic crisis globally. This paper attempts to assess the impacts and management strategies of agritourism in Brunei. Due to the constant evolvement of knowledge and management strategies during this unprecedented time, qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was deemed appropriate for this research. This paper focuses on agritourism farms in Brunei during Covid-19 to study the implication and contingency plans to divert such crises. Findings from this study indicates that strategies employed by the Brunei agritourism farms were (1) the diversification of economic activities towards product innovation and agribusiness expansion to mitigate tourism revenue loss; (2) digital transformation such as, contact tracing app, the introduction of virtual tourism as well as the use of social media to promote agritourism as lower-risk tourism; (3) adaptive human resources strategy by encouraging community capacity building such as upskilling and training of local farmers to stimulate new agritourism skills and establish more future-ready workforce. The strategies adopted by the agritourism farms in Brunei could provide lessons to neighbouring countries and the ASEAN region to prepare for a crisis-resistant agritourism in the future.

摘要

当前的 Covid-19 大流行对旅游业的影响最大，并导致数十亿的行业完全停滞，导致全球经济危机。本文试图评估文莱农业旅游的影响和管理策略。由于在这个前所未有的时期知识和管理策略的不断发展，使用半结构化访谈的定性方法被认为适合本研究。本文重点关注 Covid-19 期间文莱的农业旅游农场，以研究转移此类危机的影响和应急计划。这项研究的结果表明，文莱农业旅游农场采用的策略是：（1）经济活动多样化，转向产品创新和农业企业扩张，以减轻旅游收入损失；(2) 数字化转型，例如接触者追踪应用程序、虚拟旅游的引入以及使用社交媒体将农业旅游推广为低风险旅游；(3) 适应性人力资源战略，鼓励社区能力建设，例如提高当地农民的技能和培训，以激发新的农业旅游技能并建立更多面向未来的劳动力。文莱农业旅游农场所采取的战略可以为邻国和东盟地区提供经验教训，为未来的抗危机农业旅游做好准备。(3) 适应性人力资源战略，鼓励社区能力建设，例如提高当地农民的技能和培训，以激发新的农业旅游技能并建立更多面向未来的劳动力。文莱农业旅游农场所采取的战略可以为邻国和东盟地区提供经验教训，为未来的抗危机农业旅游做好准备。(3) 适应性人力资源战略，鼓励社区能力建设，例如提高当地农民的技能和培训，以激发新的农业旅游技能并建立更多面向未来的劳动力。文莱农业旅游农场所采取的战略可以为邻国和东盟地区提供经验教训，为未来的抗危机农业旅游做好准备。