Sustainable tourism emphasises responsible utilisation of economic, socio-cultural and environmental resources for tourism development. Extant literature in sustainable tourism leans towards subjective and qualitative description in explaining the dynamic nature of the trans-disciplinary indicators of sustainability. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to quantify the indicators measuring sustainable tourism in an indigenous ethnic context. The current study measures 61 sustainable indigenous tourism indicators of the Mah Meri ethnic group that comprise three constructs, namely, community resources, community development and sustainable tourism. Simple random sampling was employed for data elicitation and a weighted average score using R software as the basis of analysis was used to produce a sustainable indigenous tourism barometer (SITB). The study identifies 11 sustainability dimensions from the initial three main constructs that are treated as the relationship aspects in this study. Based on the Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Barometer (SITB), community participation, empowerment, economic and socio-cultural sustainability are found to be the main influencing dimensions of sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. However, natural resources, financial resources and environmental sustainability indicated weaker relationships in explaining sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. Based on the SITB, the results demonstrate that the Mah Meri ethnic group are a "potential sustainable" tourism stakeholder.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the long-run and short-run relationships among tourist arrivals to Malaysia and tourism price, substitute price, travelling cost, income and exchange rate for Asian7. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) is employed in the analysis, and the data cover the period 1970 to 2004. The empirical results show that in the long-run and short-run the tourism price, travelling cost, substitute price and income are the major determinants of Malaysia's tourism demand. The results also show that word-of mouth effect, world economic crisis and the outbreak of SARS (2002-03) significantly affected the demand for Malaysia's tourism in the shortrun. The findings are consistent with the economic theory and the model passed all the diagnostic tests.

The present paper has applied dichotomous choice survey design-contingent valuation method (CVM) to investigate empirically the willingness to pay (WTP) of the visitors for ecotourism resources in two selected marine parks in Peninsular Malaysia. Hence, the purpose of this research is to estimate the value of ecotourism resources by using environmental economic tools which focuses on contingent valuation method of WTP. It uses Logit and Probit models to estimate the visitor's WTP responses for conservation the marine parks for ecotourism. The studies are based on a sample of 215 respondents in Pulau Redang and 153 respondents in Pulau Payar that were randomly interviewed for data collection for both islands in April-July 2007. The results in Pulau Redang indicate that visitors are willing to pay for conservation about RM7.8 and RM10.6 per year for local and international visitors. Meanwhile, in Pulau Payar, the result has shown that local and international visitors are willing to pay about RM7.30 and RM8 respectively. The findings may provide guideline to marine parks and to help develop management policies that enhance ecotourism contribution to sustainable development and conservation in marine parks in Malaysia.

is a special conservation area within a Permanent Forest Reserve (PFR), consisting of limestone landscape, an extensive mangrove forest system, beaches, coastal wetlands and islands. However, the limestone, forest reserve and mangrove areas have been identified as environmentally sensitive, and are under threat by development activities. Currently, there is a lack of information on the economic benefits of the geoforest park, in terms of services. A demand model of international visitors to the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park (KKGP) was derived and compared the benefit estimated using both travel cost and consumer surplus adjustment techniques. The Travel Cost Method (TCM) has been employed to derive the demand model, whilst the concept of consumer surplus was used for value determination and comparison. The findings showed that the benefit estimated using travel cost adjustments, based on satisfaction attained, is €288,000,000, and number of hours spent in the park is €141,000,000, which was greater than that for the consumer surplus adjustment based on satisfaction attained €278,640,000 and number of hours spent €123,840,000. The study proposed the travel cost adjustment technique findings rather than the consumer surplus adjustment technique, since it was based on specific KKGP model estimation. In conclusion, the findings on the monetary value of the geoforest park will alert the community regarding the importance of conserving KKGP.

This study aims to assess the possibility of adapting evidence-based policies in the daily operations of tour operators in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. This intervention is important, as on-site investigations reveal that operators are operating their businesses with little reference to the ecotourism policy guidelines. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a full qualitative approach. In-depth interviews were conducted on tour operators in Semporna, while text mining was used to elicit data from the Malaysian National Ecotourism Plan. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the primary sources. Findings Gaps were evident between best practices guidelines from the National Ecotourism Plan and the day-today practices of tour operators in Semporna, Sabah. This was due to the limitations of the National Ecotourism Plan and the limitations of the operators in identifying and adhering to best practices; the impracticality of best practices in site-specific scenarios; and the benefit of adapting evidence-based practices (ECP) in Semporna, Sabah. Practical implications The implications of this study include a plan to bring forth a non-parochial and innovative approach in rural tourism policymaking process and to advocate evidence-based intervention through the inclusion and participation of stakeholders. Originality/value This study contributes towards the requisite of evidence-based intervention for rural tourism policies to meet site-specific needs.

The objectives of this study are to determine the visitors’ willingness to pay for conservation of the resources at Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park (TNGP), and to determine the satisfaction of visitors towards the use of the ecotourism resources of the park. The dichotomous choice Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was employed to determine the willingness to pay (WTP). A total of 423 respondents were interviewed face-to-face to collect the data. The results show that most visitors are satisfied with the ecotourism resources in TNGP, many of the visitors have come to TNGP more than once. In order to sustain the benefits derived from the resources at the park, the visitors agree that various organization involved must cooperate to conserve and protect the ecotourism resources. The economic benefit of conservation of the ecotourism resources at TNGP was measured using the visitors’ WTP for higher entrance fee to the park. A logit regression model was used to determine visitors’ willingness to pay. The results indicate that income, gender (male) and residential (urban) were the significant factors that influencing the visitors’ WTP for the entrance fee to TNGP. The mean WTP is found to be RP 7629.77 per visit. It is estimated that in 2004 the benefits of conservation of the ecotourism resources in TNGP amounts to RP 452 million.

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Malaysia deforested 6.3 million hectares since independence; 91% of which occurred before Malaysia pledged, at the Earth Summit in 1992, to maintain a minimum 50% of its terrestrial area under forest cover. However, under economic and population pressure, Sarawak—the largest contributing state to the country’s current forest cover of 54.8%—shows continuing deforestation even after 1992. This paper reviews land use policies underpinned by economic development and environmental protection considerations, land rights issues that complicate land use planning, and legislation that regulates land use change. The objective is to investigate the adequacy of existing policies and legislation in governing forest cover in Sarawak and to recommend improvement measures. If the Sarawak Land Use Policy that allocates seven million hectares for forest is realized, Malaysia’s forest cover would drop to 53%, assuming other states maintain their forests. It is recommended that legislation governing the designation of permanent forest and conversion of forest for other land use to be strengthened, civil society to be enlisted to enhance knowledge level, and carbon credit production to be promoted as alternative land use that keeps forests standing. With these measures, it is hopeful that Malaysia’s aspirations regarding forest cover can be achieved.