Abstract for: Designing the Resilience Ecosystem for Entrepreneurs in Malaysia's Rural Tourism: a Conceptual Model

The rural tourism sector is a vital destination that become a choice among tourist from domestic and international markets in Malaysia. Rural tourism activities, including homestays, campsites, adventures, cultural arts and crafts, culinary experiences, and ecotourism, significantly contribute to local economic development (LED). These activities are essential strategies frequently advocated to alleviate poverty and foster job creation, especially amid global trends towards decentralization and the transformation of governmental structures. However, tourism is a delicate sector, vulnerable to economic, social, political, and environmental issues, owing to its dependence on external variables. Natural disasters, economic downturns, terrorist incidents, and public health issues consistently jeopardize the sustainable development of the rural tourism sector. The digital revolution includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage is evidently a significant influence in societal transformation and will be the mediation in the ecosystem. The objective of this study is to design the resilience model for entrepreneurs in the Malaysia rural tourism ecosystem with the application of system dynamics to simulate the ecosystem. A causal loop diagram (CLD) is created to illustrate the feedback structure of the system. With the employment of Actor Network Theory, the study has analyzed the factors that contribute to the resilience of rural tourism’s entrepreneurs within the impact of tourism crises in Malaysia, and identified two (2) main survival factors, which are adaptive capacity and spatial bricolage. Generating the ecosystem and data