Introduction:

Tourism industry, a major contributor to the world economy, is continually

growing at 4 to 4.5% annually (UNEP 2003). It has generated an estimated gross
output of US$3.5 trillion and employing 207 million people in 2001 and expected
to increase to US$7.0 trillion of gross output and employing 260 million by 2011
(World Travel and Tourism Council, 2006). The tourism industry contributed to
economic development through among others, providing employment and
business opportunities, infrastructure improvement and increased in foreign
exchange and tax revenues.

Even though Malaysia is a relatively new entrant into tourism activities as

compared to its ASEAN neighbours, the industry has grown tremendously over
the years. By 2005, tourism industry is a key foreign exchange earner for
Malaysia, contributing to over 40% of the country’s balance of payment (EPU,
2006). The industry has provides an important source of income, employment
and wealth to the country.

However, a massive influx of tourists can also cause adverse environmental

impact due to increase in consumption of natural resources, consumerism and
waste generation. An unsustainable tourism could lead increase in solid waste,
degradation of heritage and cultural sites, reduction in biological diversity,
destruction of wildlife and subsequently leads to river, lakes and sea pollution
(APEC, 2002).

Planning for tourism has been an oft-cited concept. It is yet to be properly

operationalized. The ideological foundations of society influence the planning
process. This has its strengths and limitations. For example, market-based
economies rely on the private sector and elements of capitalism for economic
growth and development. Planning, in that context is often seen as a tool for the
enhancement of the developmental opportunities. However, the profits of
development in market based economies are unevenly shared. On the other
hand, in centrally planned economies where the state holds all property rights,
well formulated plans may fail to produce expected results. The reason given for
this is the absence of individual incentives. To be effective, planning involves a
commitment from diverse interest groups which could be many. These groups
may even have conflicting interests. The Challenge here is to see tourism
development planning process move in an orderly direction. This, at times, would
require taking a compromising position without giving up the overall
developmental objective.
Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism was designed to manage it in the interests of all three parties
involved - the host habitats and communities, the tourists and the industry itself.
It seeks a balance between development and conservation. It seeks to find the
best form of tourism for an area taking into account its ecology and its culture.
Sustainable tourism seeks not just to plan for tourism, but to integrate tourism
into a balanced relationship with broader economic development. That is the
way in which sustainable tourism fulfils its requirement to think holistically, and
one of its approaches to responsibility in business, the triple bottom line. In many
rural areas the watchword is that tourism should be a tool for rural conservation,
service retention and diverse development - not just a business for its own sake.
In many urban areas, tourism can also work with heritage conservation by using
redundant historic buildings for tourism purposes, by injecting tourism
expenditures into areas needing urban regeneration, and by bringing jobs and re-
training to areas with unemployment / social problems.

Whole new fields of research are developing within sustainable tourism–

including behaviour change, market linked interpretation, eco-museum
landscapes, social marketing, rail tourism, pluri-activity and life-style
entrepreneurialism and new forms of food, beverage and hospitality linkages.
Over much of the developed world, the creation of regional, district and local
sustainable tourism strategy plans has enabled business, community and
environmental interests to come together to learn, discuss and develop viable
sustainable tourism strategy plans, to guide and inform investment by the private
sector, non-profits and public sector interests. sustainable tourism is not just a
planning technique, or a marketing device, or an unreachable aim, it is an
adventure with rewards. Those rewards could be especially strong here.
Sustainable tourism is a tourism that will carry on, that will endure but that will
also contribute, nourish and tolerate.

Malaysia – an overview of the country

Tourism development in Malaysia

Generally, in the 1970s, the tourism industry was not regarded as an important
economic activity but after the establishment of Tourism Development
Corporation of Malaysia (TDC) in 1972, the agency responsible for developing
tourism activities in the country, tourism took on greater significance but Malaysia
still remained a relatively little known destination, while, the neighbouring
countries in the region such as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia built and their
reputation as mass tourism destinations in the region.

However in the 1980s, the tourism industry became more important for the
Malaysia. This is evident as government and private sector invested about
$US350 million per year in new facilities and capital equipment, representing
7.3% of total worldwide capital investments. Almost 6.5% of the world’s
workforce was employed by the industry, and the main reasons for this growth
was the increase in personal income and leisure time, improvement in
international transportation systems and greater public awareness of other parts
of the world due to improved communication.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing services industries in the global economy
and it has flourished tremendously over the years as a source of revenue to the
country. In Malaysia, the economic impact of tourism is felt mostly by sectors
such as transportation, services, hospitality and tourism related retail businesses.
The tourism industry in Malaysia has faced many challenges over an extended
period. These challenges are predominantly exogenous economic events that
have had an impact on international tourism demand, and it includes the oil
crises in the 1970s, economic and financial turmoil at Asia in the late 1990s, and
the September 11 incident in the United States. Although the tourist arrival rate to
Malaysia from foreign countries has experienced some dramatic changes in
previous years, the conditional variance of the arrival rate has not been
investigated in the tourism literature.

In Malaysia, the tourism industry showed an upward trend until the onset of the
financial crisis in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1980s, the Tourism
Development Corporation (TDC) was aggressively engaged in promotions and
publicity campaigns both domestic and abroad to entice travellers and tourists to
Malaysia. Despite the efforts, the number of tourist arrivals only increased slightly
in the 1980s when the Malaysian government launched the Visit Malaysia Year
campaign in 1990, from now on the tourism industry has become the third
biggest foreign exchange earner (Eight Malaysia Plan, 2001). However, there
was a dramatic downturn in worldwide travel in the aftermath of the Gulf War.
Reflecting that environment, the number of tourist arrivals decreased moderately.
The second Visit Malaysia Year was launched in 1994 and it showed an increase
in the number of tourist arrivals but the growth rate remained far behind
compared to the first campaign in 1990.

Beside that, in the context of percentage growth in the total receipt, it outweighed
by almost RM4 billion. In the mid 1990s, Malaysia faced a series of diseases and
environment problem, such as Coxsackie’s B in Sarawak, haze problem, bird flu
in Thailand and it was reflected in the decline of tourist arrivals to Malaysia.
However, in the early 2000, the tourism industry in Malaysia experienced positive
growth with major international conventions being held in Malaysia such as Union
of Forestry Research Organization Congress in 2000, 50th PATA Annual
Conference in 2001, NAM meeting in 2005, OIC meeting in 2004 and Monsoon
Cup in 2005. Besides that, events such as CITRAWARNA Malaysia Festival,
Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival and international exhibitions boosted tourist arrivals
to Malaysia.

The tourism industry has remained robust despite the economic slowdown in the
first half of the Eight Malaysia Plan, whereby, the industry continued to be a key
foreign exchange earner, contributing to growth, investment and employment as
well as strengthening the services account of the balance of payments. The
resilience of the industry was largely attributed to the active participation of both
the public and private sectors in undertaking vigorous promotion and marketing,
diversifying target markets, as well as improving competitiveness of tourism
products and services to sustain interest among tourists to visit Malaysia.

What approach have adopted – sustainable tourism planning

An unsustainable tourism could lead increase in solid waste, degradation of

heritage and cultural sites, reduction in biological diversity, destruction of wildlife
and subsequently leads to river, lakes and sea pollution (APEC, 2002). Given the
significant role of tourism in the economy and the potential benefits from it, there
is a need to ensure that the tourism industry remains both environmentally and
economically sustainable. In ensuring the sustainability of the industry, protection
of the environment is of foremost importance. Furthermore, sustainable tourism
development has become an important criterion in attracting tourists.

A poorly planned and managed tourism development, besides being detrimental

to the environment and the local communities, could result in decrease in market
share (APEC, 1996). As a result, a more sustainable tourism development is
needed. Sustainable tourism development has three inter-related major
components, i.e., the environmental, economic and social cultural. It is defined by
UNEP (2001) as follows:

“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of the present tourist and
host regions while protecting and enhancing the opportunity for the future. It is
envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that
economic, social and aesthetic need can be fulfilled, while maintaining cultural
integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support
systems”, (WTO)(UNEP,2001).

Besides ensuring the preservation of the environment, tourism activities should

preserve the culture of the local communities and provide adequate economic
opportunities for the locals whilst guarding them against exploitation (Moore
1996, Leposky 1997). The role of the Malaysian government in promoting
sustainable tourism is evident in the existing legal and institutional framework.
There is evidence that indicate that Agenda 21 have been adopted in the national
master plan. The national ecotourism plan was intended to provide a general
framework to assist the government in developing the country’s ecotourism
potential.

Malaysian Ministry recognizes the imperative role of the private sector and
specifies roles for all sectors of Federal, State and Local Authority (LA), private
business, NGOs and other players, (APEC, 2002).Under the new plan, Malaysia
a more integrated approach to tourism planning and management are to be
undertaken (EPU, 2005) through preserving as well as enhancing the existing
and natural and cultural assets. At the local level, local authorities and
communities are encouraged to have a more active role from the beginning of
the projects so as to minimise environmental destruction. For businesses, such
as hotels and resorts, they “will need to incorporate, among others, water and
energy conservation as well as waste disposal aspects in the implementation,
management and maintenance plans” (EPU, 2005, pg 201). There are the
arguments that sustainable tourism should not be left to market mechanism and
industry self regulation but should be backed with policies and legislations. Thus,
sustainable tourism needs to be backed by environmental policy and legislation.

Environmental Policy and Legislations

Locating specific legislation that discuss about sustainable tourism might be

frustrating. Nevertheless there are many policies and acts which were formulated
by the Malaysian government that are favoured to the environmental issues.
Among others are the Environmental Quality Order, 1987; National Parks Act,
1980; The Protection of Wildlife Act of 1972, The Fisheries Act, 1985; The
National Forestry Act, 1984 and the establishment of Marine Parks Malaysia
Order of 1994. Each of these policies falls under different jurisdiction of the
government authorities which might impede smooth implementation of
sustainable tourism due the bureaucratic obstacles.

Acknowledging the need to have a more holistic guide, the Malaysian

government has come out with the Malaysian National Conservation Strategy
(NCS):

The intention of the NCS is to set out plans and suggestions which can be used
to integrate more fully the many existing efforts toward natural resources
management for conversation and development, to build on the strength of
existing institutions and mechanisms, and to incorporate additional future efforts
into the process of conservation as a key to successful and sustainable
Development (Mohd Nawayai 2008, pg 70).

The strategies outlined by the NCS seemed to have close similarity with what are
prescribed in the Agenda 21 toward achieving sustainable tourism. This evidence
lends strong support for the implementation of Agenda 21 in the national policy.
This implies that the Malaysian government is serious in making their way toward
achieving sustainable tourism. Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 clearly binds them to
take lead in the implementation of the sustainable development at a local level. It
is an approach through which a local community defines their strategy and the
action program to be implemented.

Malaysia as one of the signatories of the Agenda 21 is therefore expected to

oblige with the concept of sustainable development. Thus, Local Agenda 21 was
implemented by four local authorities in 2000. They are the Miri City Council,
Petaling Jaya City Council, Kerian District Council and Kuantan Municipal
Council (Awang Kepli, 2006).

Local Agenda and Sustainable Tourism

Tourism product is unique in the sense that customers have to come to the
particular location in order enjoy it (in marketing, this is known as the ‘pull’
strategy).

What have been achieved thorugh this approach of tourism planning in

Malaysia

What has not been achieved?

Beside the lack of political commitment, another constraints faced in sustainable

tourism development is due to the lack of trained and skills personnel together
with the lack of financial resources both at the state and local level to maintain
tourism products, facilities and infrastructures. Thus, even though Malaysia has
incorporated sustainable tourism principles into her tourism master plan, the
diffusion of such philosophy to the local level has been quite slow (Cruz, 2003).
There is dire need to introduce and effectively implement local agenda 21 for
sustainable tourism to ensure more responsible tourism practices. Tourism
should be integrated in with the overall policies and the strategies and there
should political commitment to implement the strategies and enforce the policies
and regulations. There is a need to have a local agenda for sustainable tourism
put in place in Malaysia.

In general what are the weaknesses of sustainable tourism planning

approach
Conclusion and recommendations

For the tourism sector to be sustainable, strategy to achieve it need to be

integrated with the wider strategy sustainable development strategy with effective
multi-stakeholder participation. Moreover, actions in line with the strategy should
be implemented. Besides effective participation from the various stakeholders,
the tourism strategy should be integrated with the wider strategy for sustainable
development. The tourism management should be integrated with other
management functions and actions in line with the strategy should be
implemented

The major focus will be to strengthen Malaysia’s position as a leading global

tourism destination as well as to promote domestic tourism. As tourism generates
high multiplier effects across many sectors, it will provide a wider platform for
greater inter and intra-sector linkages. Hence more coordinated efforts will be
undertaken to mobilise and channel resources to upgrade the requisite tourism
infrastructure and facilities as well as develop more innovative tourism products
and services. High priority will continue to be accorded to achieve more
sustainable tourism development in Malaysia. The Ministry of Tourism will take
the lead in developing the tourism industry through greater marketing and
promoting the country’s diverse tourism products and services. These efforts will
be supported by other entities, including Tourism Malaysia, state governments
and local authorities.

Besides that, efforts to ensure sustainable tourism development will include the
utilization of a more integrated approach in project planning and implementation.
In addition, Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) will be fully developed. The TSA
mechanism will be able to quantify the contribution of the tourism sector to
economic growth, incomes and investments in order to support subsequent
policy making and readjustment of strategies and programmes for the tourism
industry in Malaysia.

The success of achieving sustainable tourism depends very much on how we

define each issue, their scope and seriousness and the full support and
commitment from all stakeholders. The planning design of sustainable tourism
must be made and presented at every level, especially the national level to
ensure consistent understanding of the concept. By brainstorming the idea of
sustainable tourism (program-, policy- and practice- wise), the local community
needs will be identified and thus, can be properly addressed.