CONCEPTUALISING SMART COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM FOR WOMEN-LED RURAL ENTERPRISES IN MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/JTHEM.1145051Keywords:
Digital Tools, Smart Community-Based Tourism, Sustainability, Theoretical Framework, Women-Led Rural EnterprisesAbstract
Smart Community-Based Tourism (CBT) remains an emerging area of inquiry, particularly within rural, women-led tourism enterprises. Existing tourism literature remains conceptually fragmented: macro-level Smart Tourism models focus on urban, infrastructure-heavy destinations; CBT models emphasise local values without conceptualising digital integration; and sustainability frameworks operate as detached outcome layers. Informed by a Social Constructivist paradigm and by a Socio-Technical Systems perspective, this conceptual paper develops a context-specific Smart CBT Framework tailored to rural women-led enterprises. The paper synthesises three core analytical components: accessible digital tools and technologies (the technical subsystem), core CBT practice domains (the social subsystem) and the Triple Bottom Line as an evaluative outcome layer. By positioning Socio-Technical Alignment as the central mediating mechanism, the framework conceptualises Smart CBT (adapted CBT practices) not as a macro-level technological deployment, but as situated operational routines that emerge when women entrepreneurs adapt digital tools to fit community routines and resource constraints. The resulting framework provides a practice-oriented perspective that reframes digitalisation as a process of social inclusion and joint optimization rather than purely technical innovation. This paper provides a theoretical basis for future empirical inquiry while suggesting context-sensitive pathways for rural digital inclusion and gender-responsive tourism policy in Malaysia.
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