Ecotourism Development In Belum Temengor Ferest Complex : A Multi - Stakeholder Perspective

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Date
2016-08
Authors
Abdullah, Azreen Rozainee
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Abstract
This study is focused on ecotourism development in Belum Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) in northern Perak state, based on the perspectives of five groups of stakeholders. The five groups of stakeholders identified are the local indigenous community, tourists, governmental and management authorities, NGOs, and tour and business operators. A mixed method, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, was used to achieve the objectives of the study. For the qualitative methods, semi-structured in-depth interview was used to interview the indigenous community, while key informants interview was carried out on governmental and management authorities, NGOs and tour and business operators. In quantitative method, questionnaire was distributed to the tourists and subsequently collected. The concepts of ecotourism and stakeholder theory set the theoretical and conceptual context of the study. The findings revealed that ecotourism activities pay little concern on environmental impacts especially on littering and wastewater treatment. Ecotourism tours also do not fully integrate environmental awareness education in their programmes. Eventhough majority of the stakeholders fully support ecotourism development in the BTFC, the indigenous community did not fully benefit from it as very limited numbers of them are involved and participate in this sector. This study also found that majority of the stakeholders fully support the establishment of Royal Belum and they believed that by incorporating Temengor into Royal Belum as a larger state park will further boost ecotourism industry in BTFC and help to conserve the environment. This study concludes that ecotourism development in BTFC is still at its developmental phase and offers recommendations to improve this development. Sustainable ecotourism development is not yet possible to achieve as the indigenous community in BTFC is still inadequate and incapable of handling ecotourism on their own. Instead, collaboration between all stakeholders in this dynamic condition is seen as a viable option for adoption in order to further strengthen ecotourism development in BTFC.
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Ecotourism development in Belum Temengor Forest Complex , in northern Perak state,
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