Employment creation in the hotel industry for women in rural areas: Case studies from Kundasang and Tuaran, Sabah

• Main Authors: Jennifer Chan Kim Lian, BaIvinder Kaur Kler
• Format: Research Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sabah 1999
• Subjects: HF Commerce
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23437/1/Employment%20Creation%20In%20The%20Hotel%20Industry.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23437/7/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23437/

The effort to encourage women to partake in development in the rural areas of Sabah has been a slow and tedious process. However, the development of the tourism industry particularly in the rural areas of Sabah has meant the availability of employment in a new area - that of working in hotels. The hotel industry welcomes employees, both skilled and unskilled to fill various job requirements, which include Housekeeping, Kitchen, Restaurants and also Front Office. This has meant the opportunity for locals to seek employment in this relatively new industry as opposed to fishing or growing vegetables. This study sets out to look at the perspective of women in development and to pinpoint the main issues in encouraging such employment. The study looks at two case studies, of Kundasang and Tuaran, two areas where tourism development in the last 4 years. The main sample of female employees consists of women who are of Kadazantbisun and Bajau descent. Most of them are categorised as housewives, planters, farmers or run stalls at the Tamu selling local wares. The primary objective of the study is to delve into the opinion of women who are now working in the hotel industiy and to raise an awareness of the issues that need to be improved for the sake of improving the situation for them. This includes looking into access to employment, training, and the opportunity to change their lives (to build a career) and to highlight the main obstacles to their desire to develop a career as related to their traditional role in the society.