Wednesday, August 29, 2007 ‘Protect the environment’
AN official of Sabah, Malaysia urges tourism stakeholders in Cebu to invest in environmental protection to attract more tourists.
“The key factors in the tourism culture are politeness, efficiency and, most importantly, cleanliness. If you want people to come to your place, take care of your environment and hospitality,” said Datuk Karim Bujang, deputy minister of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment in Sabah, Malaysia.
Bujang, in his talk on “Moving Tourism Forward: Sabah Experience” during the 4th Sun.Star Economic Forum, called on tourism stakeholders, including the public sector, to protect the environment and culture of a place.
He said environment and culture are important factors in ensuring sustainable tourism.
Sustained growth
He cited Sabah’s experience, saying that tourism growth in the area was sustained because of eco-tourism development, a major contributor to its economy.
Sabah, the second largest Malaysian state located in the northern part of Borneo, has six national parks, including Kinabalu National Park, which was declared a world heritage site in 2000.
This explains why majority of tourist arrivals in Sabah are foreigners who are into eco-challenge while many visit the state to see the orangutans, Bujang said.
“These innocent orangutans don’t know that they have donated so much to Sabah,” he said.
Citing official records, Bujang said Sabah aims to attract 2.3 million tourists this year.
While its original goal was to 2.7 million visitors by the end of 2007, he said the government had to reduce the number due to infrastructure problems, such as lack of accessibility.
Sabah airport’s, however, has 42 direct international flights, 300 domestic flights weekly, and a total of 14,000 seats from various international points.
Unique proposition
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and China are among Sabah’s top tourist markets, said Bujang.
Bujang urged Cebu tourism players to find its unique selling proposition as well as capitalize on environmental projects that will pave the growth of tourist arrivals to the province.
“You don’t have to think about getting millions and millions of tourists but get more high spending ones. Better have less but in terms of returns, there’s more,” he said.
Also during the economic forum, Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Efrain Pelaez Jr. said before Cebu considers increasing its visitor arrivals, the private and public sectors should “go back to basics.”
Pelaez pointed out the garbage problem in Mactan as well as the lack of infrastructure like roads, street lighting and tourism information center.
During a panel discussion in the economic forum, he described the lack of waste management in Mactan as “alarming.”
“Mactan, with its nice beaches, is a tourism jewel in the Philippines. But we have done nothing to clean our house even if tourists and tourism investors want to come in droves,” he said. (MMM)
