The Development of Indicators for Social Enterprise Business Model in Melitourism

Abstract

Melitourism is a special type of farm tourism that utilizes stingless bees as a tourism product. However, stingless beekeeping is not a primary livelihood for most curious beginners, such that the business aspects of the operation are often neglected. This paper aimed at developing a model for melitourism social enterprise. With the appropriate entrepreneurial framework, the residents, the local government, and the local businesses will be able to participate and benefit from the melitourism process. The study used an extensive review of more than a hundred literature. The development of the model was anchored on Isenberg's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Sustainable Livelihood. The results comprehensively discussed ten components: human capital, financial capital, market access, bioecology, technology, ethics, tourism, culture and heritage, policy, and social capital. Transitioning from conventional beekeeping to melitourism needs careful planning on the part of the farmers. Simply having a passion for beekeeping is not enough. Bee farmers operate within an entrepreneurial ecosystem wherein they must collaborate with policymakers, residents, and organizations