COVID-19 has impacted the ecotourism industry significantly. It is imperative to examine and identify the key challenges in running rural ecotourism businesses to comprehend the mindset of the working community members before re-establishing a business model during endemic phase. This study aimed to explore and identify the resources and capabilities challenges perceived by the members of community-based ecotourism located in Marakau Village, Sabah. The study, which took place in 2021, employed a qualitative method through interviews among 10 key members of the Tagal Marakau Association responsible for a tagal ecotourism business. The interview was recorded and transcribed to identify common themes of issues. There was a total of 15 emerging issues: lack of capital, lack of business know-how, shortage of hospitality skills, lack of social capital, poor marketing ability, land dispute, absence of a strategic business model, poor financial planning, poor implementation of human resource practices, inadequate infrastructures, limited customer experiences, high fish habitat maintenance, external competitors, stakeholders support, and liability as a small business venture. These issues collated into five themes of business mindset domains: knowledge, attitude, skills, aspiration, and finance (KASA-F). Identifying the perceived challenges would help to understand the mindset of working rural community members to assist in re-formulating strategic plans for business sustainability in the post-COVID era.
We revisit the oil price and stock market nexus by considering the impact of major economic shocks in the post-global financial crisis (GFC) scenario. Our breakpoint unit root test and Markov switching regression (MRS) analyses using West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price and Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) market index show that among the major economic events, the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is the most significant contributor to market volatilities. Furthermore, our MRS results show that the relationship between oil price and the stock market is regime-dependent; the stock market experiences substantial and positive shocks in a volatile oil price regime. Our results provide valuable insights to investors and policymakers regarding risk management and financial market stability during economic crisis periods, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education. The closure of schools and the cessation of face-to-face classrooms have affected schools and students worldwide. The current need is to transform the traditional classroom to adapt to the new social and educational background. The flipped classroom is usually defined as a strategy to subvert the conventional academic environment; that is, the information transmission part of the traditional face-to-face lecture is removed from the classroom time for online self-learning. The flipped classroom is a highly flexible classroom mode, which has brought significant changes to education. Therefore, this study aims to examine the studies' research trends, advantages, and challenges concerning the flipped classroom for EFL courses during the COVID-19 epidemic. For this purpose, databases including the web of Science (WOS) and Scopus were reviewed, and 15 articles were analyzed. A systematic review was used as the research methodology. The study's findings revealed the effectiveness of flipped classrooms for EFL courses during the pandemic. Based on the review, this paper puts forward suggestions for future research and points out the future development direction.