Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide some insights on current industry internship practices and the perceptions of students during their internship experience. This paper also highlights some issues pertaining to internship from the students’ and the industry’s perspective Design/methodology/approach The paper utilises qualitative research methodology using in-depth interviews. Findings The sources of conflict arising between the two parties need to be addressed carefully so as to create a win–win situation. The paper offers some suggestions for higher education institutions as to how to establish better guidelines for student internships as well as for industry operators.. Originality/value Internship, industrial training, practical training or work-integrated learning refers to the involvement of students, institutions and colleges of higher learning in the industry. Internship provides an opportunity for students to experience first-hand, a work-related learning process. Given this, the involvement of industry in accepting students onto well-designed internship programmes is very much needed, so as to ensure the completion of a balanced period of study for a career in hospitality and tourism.

Other than providing overnight stays and local activities, the provision of food and beverage is an important aspect in the homestay business. The food and beverage aspect of a homestay has the potential of being a crucial contributing factor towards a guest’s experience whilst ensuring optimal monetary return to the homestay operators. This paper presents the findings on meal offerings provided by four homestay operators at Mantanani Island, an island off the Kota Belud coast of Sabah. This study also highlights the importance of food as an element of local culture and as an expression of the history, habits and traditions of a community. Discussions are pinned on rationalising the differences in meal offerings among operators and how this would implicate the operators’ profit margins, as well as how the local culture reflects the menu offered by the homestay participants.  Finally, recommendations for improvement on meal plans are proposed to enhance the economic benefits of these operators without compromising guest experience

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For countries that are geographically blessed with islands, island tourism is a potential segment that can be exploited, especially in view of the intense competition in attracting tourists to the Southeast Asian region. Layang-Layang Island, Malaysia, which is located in the middle of the South China Sea is a renowned diving destination known for its hammerhead sharks and other pelagic marine life. Despite having hosted tourists (particularly divers) for nearly two decades, Layang-Layang Island is much under-researched. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the tourist experience in Layang-Layang Island by utilising online reviews extracted from the TripAdvisor website. Leximancer software was utilised to analyse the data and generate concepts out of words. Five themes were derived from the data analysis which flight, resort, diving, day and reef. The findings provide insights into the positioning of Layang-Layang Island from the tourists’ perspectives and maybe a useful reference for its future development.

Global demand for wildlife tourism is rising and maintaining a positive tourist experience is essential to ensuring the industry's long-term survival. A top location for wildlife tourism, the Lower Kinabatangan River, located in Sabah, Malaysia, is impacted by its surroundings and requires careful management to maintain its reputation for offering pleasant wildlife tourist experiences. This paper aimed to explore tourist experiences in the Lower Kinabatangan River using user-generated content in Web reviews. This paper utilised 186 online reviews extracted from the TripAdvisor website and analysed the data with Leximancer software. Three themes were derived from the data analysis: river, monkey, and trip. The cloud-generated concepts were discussed through the tourist experience's servicescape context. The result reveals that most tourist (87.63%) shows positive overall experiences; however, some do show concerns about the issue of rubbishes, dead fish in the river, the invasion of oil palm plantation, and forest destruction. The valuable insights offer a better understanding of the determinants of tourist experiences for the Lower Kinabatangan River to formulate strategies to increase their positive experiences and draw up alternatives to minimise the negative experiences.