In 2002, 280 delegates from 20 countries participated in a conference on responsible tourism organised by the United Nations at Cape Town, South Africa as a side event preceding the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The conference passed a resolution, which became known as the Cape Town Declaration. In 2007, the first World Responsible Tourism Day was initiated by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and World Travel Market. It is now celebrated on every November 8.
Many people interchange the terms responsible tourism and sustainable tourism freely. They are parallel but not the same as both aim for similar results using different approaches.
Simply put, sustainable tourism is largely at macro level by the authorities, and responsible tourism more of micro efforts by individual players.
Which means to say that sustainable tourism is mostly for government authorities to make a positive economic, social, and environmental impact on host destinations, while responsible tourism depends more on tourism service providers and visiting tourists.
Responsible tourism occurs when tourists choose to travel responsibly and select service providers that act responsibly towards the local community and environment. Hence, responsible tourism is also referred to as ethical tourism.
Many tourism terms have emerged in recent years highlighting specific areas. What responsible tourism has in common with all of them is in the manner of application. And if sustainable tourism is largely the purview of the authorities, how can tour operators play a part?
A good local example is Pulau Sembilan, located 10 nautical miles from Perak’s Pangkor Island, blessed with stunning rock formations and beautiful beaches. What attracts tourists more are the unusual “blue tears” of seawater that appear at night due to bioluminescent phytoplankton.
Up to 400 tourists used to swarm the island daily, when the capacity and ruling was set for 120 people, damaging the pristine white sandy beach and threatening to wipe out the planktons. In March 2017, the Perak State Government had to close the island indefinitely to visitors.
Tour operators must play a proactive role to alert the authorities long before any tourist destination degenerate to a critical level due to overcrowding, pollution or vandalism. Last April, the Philippines had to temporary close the hugely popular 10-sq km Boracay island.
President Rodrigo Duterte described the water around the island as a cesspool, as sewage was dumped into the sea. After massive rehabilitation, it was reopened six months later and the number of people on the island limited to 19,000 visitors and 15,000 workers at any given time.
On a national scale, our local tour operators should keep reminding the authorities to carry out feasibility studies on the carrying capacity at destinations visited by their tourists. For example, if the optimum number of visitors to a particular site is 100,000 and the current number is half, more investments in accommodation and other amenities should be allowed.
But if visitor figures are already doubled the carrying capacity, steps must be taken to reduce the number. Tourism revenue could still be maintained by upgrading popular sites to serve the high-end market. After all, tourism is a business and is all about tourism receipts, not tourist numbers.
When it comes to types of tourism being bandied about, the list can be endless and confusing when they overlap and not ranked in any particular order. For importance and clarity, I have identified the top 10 and grouped them into five pairs for better focus.
The first pair is business and religious tourism. Apart from tourists travelling to join a meeting, incentive, conference or exhibition (MICE) attended by large number of people, many high-flying businessmen travel regularly on their own and stay in business-class (5-star) hotels.
The opposite end are pilgrims travelling to religious sites with the largest number to Mecca, not just during the Haj season but throughout the year. The current quota for Malaysian pilgrims for the Haj is 30,200 annually, and around 300,000 more opt for the Umrah.
The second is pairing medical with sports tourism. Although large number of visitors come to Malaysia for medical treatment and total revenue is expected to reach RM2.8 billion next year, tour operators have not joined the bandwagon, as successful intermediaries require a different level of expertise.
One of the key players in this field are healthcare travel facilitators and they are well known to local communities in their home countries and have an intimate knowledge of overseas healthcare providers. They could easily arrange for the best medical care and value for money than patients doing it on their own.
The opposite end are tourists who are healthy and fit, eager to engage in sports on land, in the water or up in the air. It is utmost important to ensure the highest level of safety and security for sports tourists, as consequences could be dire for tour operators found to be negligent or irresponsible.
The third pair is experiential tourism and ‘voluntourism’. For most tourists, there is no greater experience than consuming local foods and drinks. While few could afford the empurau, the most expensive river fish which can exceed RM2,000 a kilogramme, most could sample Musang King, one of the most well-known types of durian.
Another great experience is staying with local families or communities, but many home-sharing offered through Airbnb are actually house, apartment or room renting without a host family or person staying in. Tourists participating in Malaysia Homestay Programme get to interact with some members of the local community.
‘Voluntourism’ allows tourists to immerse deeply into a local society. While jobs and work permits are hard to come by, providing free service could easily be arranged and welcomed by those in need. For example, if there are enough people in a town enthusiastic to learn a foreign language, it won’t be difficult to find a foreigner volunteering to teach the language pro bono.
The fourth pair is ecotourism and agrotourism. Both involve flora and fauna except the former is natural while the latter is planted or bred. Apart from our tropical jungle and marine life, ecotourism also includes climbable mountains, mysterious caves, waterfalls and rivers, islands and beaches, and many more.
Agrotourism includes visits to coffee and tea plantations, orchid and flower nurseries, fruits and durian orchards, farms for domesticated or exotic animals, and fish bred in ponds or cages placed in rivers or sea.
Restaurants located at popular agrotourism sites serve the freshest food with many customers eager to buy local farm produce, either raw or processed such as coffee powder or mixture. Many visitors to Selangor’s Sekinchan rice mill buy whole bags of rice grains to bring home.
The fifth and last pair is cultural and community-based tourism. They are not the least important, only neglected by most tour operators.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, or through its marketing arm Tourism Malaysia, could invite tour operators to submit tour packages that promote local cultures or communities for compilation and dissemination.
This will prompt many tour operators to give greater emphasis in this area. But first, we need to identify what culture is. It is certainly not arts that include performing arts or art pieces which can be viewed at galleries or museums, or handicrafts that are bought as souvenirs by tourists.
It is not Citrawarna, also known as Colours of Malaysia, that is organised for one night when hundreds of dancers in colourful costumes perform at the Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur. It is more of a staged show as authentic cultural dances are performed and celebrated by local folk wearing traditional dresses and practising local customs.
It is common to hear tourism leaders and academics bandying Malaysian culture to attract tourists. But if foreign tourists were to come all the way and ask, “Show me your culture”, few tour operators would be able to think of something meaningful for them to see.
We should stop talking in general terms and be more specific and concentrate on the tangibles instead of the abstract. And there is no finer example of showcasing local culture than the bersanding ceremony, which can be organised at every kampung in Peninsular Malaysia.
If it is fascinating to watch, then it must be priceless for a foreign couple to be the sultan and sultanah for the day. There is no better way for them to celebrate their wedding anniversary than getting married again in Malaysia.
Imagine a successful son or daughter giving the parents a full expense paid trip to Malaysia to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. Upon arrival at the airport, they are chauffeured to a 5-star hotel not far from the kampong where their wedding ceremony will take place.
Very early the next day when the morning is cool and before the day gets hot, they are brought to the kampong. On arrival, the lady will be brought into the venue first and later the man ushered in by a kompang troupe and bunga manggar carriers, just like any typical Malay wedding.
The blessing ceremony can be brought forward, starting with local villagers. But unknown to the elderly couple seated at the Malay wedding dais, their children, relatives and friends have also made the same trip by taking another flight and staying at a different hotel.
Many would be shedding tears of joy when one by one emerged to sprinkle scented water on the couple’s palms, a la Malay style blessing. If captured on video and uploaded on YouTube, it could go viral and make Malay weddings the vogue to celebrate wedding anniversaries.
The children, relatives and friends could also buy and wear Malay dresses, and learn Malay dances to perform at the wedding, which they could also re-enact back home to popularise Malay culture. It is also community-based tourism at its best with many villagers benefitting from the tourist dollar.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
