Neoliberalism, Covid-19 and hope for transformation in tourism: the case of Malaysia

While international tourism, in many ways, is a form of globalized neoliberal expansion subsumed in the dominant logic of capitalist accumulation, the Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally disrupted the global chain of international tourism. This has led to important reflections on tourism's neoliberal practices, structural inequalities and negative impacts, and the need for transformative relationships with capitalism that foster just and equitable realities. The primary objective of this article is to investigate the national-level responses to tourism transformation. Using the new Malaysian National Tourism Policy 2020-2030 as a case analysis, this study investigates the transformative agenda of the policy to explore and understand the dynamics at play in calls for transformation and (re)creation of tourism strategies in developing economies through the lens of neoliberal globalization. Qualitative interpretive content analysis is used to scrutinize the plan and policy contents from the selected government documents. The findings demonstrate the leading role of the market principles in action strategies and the limits to sustainability and transformation of capitalist tourism economies.

Automated summary

This article investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international tourism and explores the challenges of the tourism industry's transformative agenda and neoliberal globalization through Malaysia's new National Tourism Policy. The study reveals the dominant role of market principles in action strategies, as well as the limitations to sustainability and transformation of capitalist tourism economies.