35pc of visitors in Sabah into ecotourism
KOTA KINABALU: A study found that 35 per cent of tourists who visit the country are into ecotourism activities such as hiking or climbing, diving, snorkeling, cave exploration, bird watching and fishing. Tourism and Culture Ministry (Motac) Sec-Gen, Datuk Isham Ishak, said Malaysia is fortunate to have tropical rainforests over 130,000 years old, beaches, islands, natural wonders and national parks as well as the cultural diversity of its people.It places Malaysia as the top ecotourism destination in the world. Through the National Ecotourism Plan 2016 – 2025, the country is developing a cluster-based ecotourism destination with a special concession package that promotes the use of eco-smart technologies and destinations namely profit sharing between governments and private operators.
The tourism sector in Malaysia showed remarkable performance. Between January and March 2019, tourist arrivals registered 4.8 per cent growth with 10.95 million tourist arrivals compared to 10.45 million tourist arrivals in the same period last year.In addition, the quarterly performance in 2019 also showed growth in the tourism revenue reached RM 21.4 billion, an increase of 16 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. In 2018, 25.8 million tourists visit the coastal areas and Malaysia ranks 15th among countries with the highest number of tourist arrivals.Meanwhile, Malaysia ranks 21st among the countries with the highest tourism revenue, generating RM 84.1 billion in tourism revenue in 2018 as recorded in the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in its Barometer Report published in May 2019.Through the plan, Motac aims to make Malaysia a ‘Smart Tourism Destination Capital’ and is committed to transforming smart tourism technology and destination management to educate industry players, tourists and local people on responsible, sustainable and inclusive tourism development.
As such, Malaysia will continue to support the initiative of Southeast Asean (Asean) member states to develop the tourism sector in the region through the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan 2016 – 2025.These include the Asean Tourism Human Resources Management and Development Network (ATRM) programme aimed at sharing experiences and expertise on ecotourism best practices and providing a discussion platform among representatives of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries.As a joint co-coordinator alongside Thailand at the Asean level, Malaysia organized the programme for the second time, at the launch of the Batu Puteh Kinabatangan Berhad Tourism Cooperative (Kopel), Sabah recently, following the similar co-operative launched by the Mulu National Park, Sarawak tourist operators in 2017. Present at the opening of the program was Motac Deputy Secretary-General (Tourism), Datuk Haslina Abdul Hamid.Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Assaffal Alian said Sabah tourism set a new record in 2018 with the highest tourism revenue of RM8.324 billion involving 3.879 million tourists. On the other hand, gross domestic arrivals registered a double-digit increase of 10.2 per cent, while domestic arrivals increased by 2.8 per cent.Thus, the Sabah Government is committed to improving Sabah’s tourism industry, especially in the field of ecotourism. Assafal added that, ecotourism is a high value sub-sector that offers unique experiences and adventures for a particular area and has the potential to become a leading destination for bringing high value tourists to the country.Therefore, from the Government’s viewpoint, there is a need to protect and promote nature-based offerings to ensure long-term sustainable benefits to the environment.
Source: Daily Express
