Dive Tourism and the Entrepreneurial Process in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Dive tourism is a high growth, niche sector for island and coastal developing nations and is propelled predominantly by local tourism entrepreneurs and small businesses. This chapter examines dive tourism in peninsula Malaysia and particularly the factors influencing the entrepreneurial process. Much research on tourism entrepreneurs is derived from analysing business in the developed world, and has focused on the individual, not the process. Significantly less research exists for middle income and less developed countries despite the critical role tourism plays in national development planning. Similarly, a significant amount of dive tourism research has emerged from the science disciplines, but less so has originated from the social science community. This chapter contributes primarily to the initial knowledge gap by drawing upon extensive fieldwork interviews in the Perhentian islands. The findings broadly reveal dive tourism as a low cost industry that is transforming into a strategically competitive one. A more nuanced analysis reveals that the factors influencing the dive tourism entrepreneurial process are embedded within the social and historical context of Malaysia.