The political economy of dive tourism: precarity at the periphery in Malaysia

Hampton, Mark P.; Jeyacheya, Julia; Lee, Donna

Abstract

Using a critical political economy approach and the concept of labour precarity, the international dive tourism industry in Sabah, Malaysia and its workers’ vulnerabilities are interrogated. Fieldwork data highlights dive tourism's socio-economic impacts and the precarity of labour within the international tourism sector and also critiques it as a development strategy for a peripheral region. The paper challenges the optimistic views of labour precarity found in the existing political economy literature. Rather than identifying labour empowerment, evidence demonstrates significant worker vulnerability, uncertainty, and contingency – especially among ethnic minorities – resulting from Malaysia's state-led rentier economy.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Aug 22, 2017
• Publication Date: 2018-01
• Deposit Date: Jun 2, 2023
• Journal: Tourism Geographies
• Print ISSN: 1461-6688
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1340
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 107-126
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2017.1357141
• Keywords: Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management; Geography, Planning and Development
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rtxg20; Received: 2017-01-27; Accepted: 2017-07-05; Published: 2017-08-22