Marketing Malaysia as a destination of excellence and to make the tourism industry a major contributor to the socio-economic development of the nation
This is Tourism Malaysia's mission statement. It has been 37 years that Tourism Malaysia aims to encourage the growth of tourism which will also contribute to country's economic development and quality of life. The government began to take tourism seriously in the late 1980s. Malaysia has launched 'Visit Malaysia Year' as the marketing campaign in 1990, which contributed 54% increase in international tourist arrivals for that year. The number of visitors keeps on increasing since then. Chart 1 below shows the trend of tourist arrivals and receipts to the country for the past 10 years.
Chart 1
Source: Tourism Malaysia, 2009
There was a rapid growth in both tourist arrivals and receipts till the number slowed down in the 2002 an 2003. This was due to worldwide fears of terrorism, September 11 attack on the WTC in New York, followed by bird flu diseases and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) attack. However the trend continues to increase despite setbacks in the following years till present which amounting to 22 million of tourist arrivals and RM 49,561.2 million in receipts for 2008. At the moment, tourism is the country's third largest source of foreign exchange earnings after manufacturing and oil.
Malaysia, being situated within the tropical region, has many nature-based tourism attractions, for examples, caves, waterfalls, hot springs, beaches, coral reefs, mountains, and birds and wildlife sanctuaries. For these reasons, the government is very keen in promoting these nature-based attractions. To conserve these nature-based attractions, the government has established a network of protected areas for the conservation of biological diversity.
National Park
Malaysia has always been recognized to be one of the richest biodiversity in the world. This is in line with the National Policy on Biological Diversity whose vision is to "transform Malaysia into a world centre of excellence in conservation, research and utilization of tropical biological diversity by the year 2020" (MoSTE , 1998).
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has defined national park as natural area of land and/or sea, designated to a) protect the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations, b) exclude exploitation or occupation inimical (harmful) to the purposes of designation of the area, and c) provide a foundation for spiritual, education, recreational and visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible (IUCN, 1994).
These national parks are established for the purpose of preservation, hence allowing and encouraging access for education, recreation and tourism purposes.
The management of tourism in regarding the natural areas is complicated in Malaysia. Authority for various natural resources is haphazardly divided under different government umbrellas and respective state authorities (Hall, 1994). In Peninsular Malaysia, terrestrial protected areas are mainly managed by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and the Department of Forestry. The marine protected areas are managed by the Federal Marine Parks Section under the Ministry of Natural resources and the Environment. In Sabah, the terrestrial protected areas are managed by Sabah Parks, Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department and Sabah Foundation, while all the marine protected areas are managed by Sabah Parks. In the case of Sarawak, all terrestrial and marine protected areas are managed by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
Malaysia has 30 gazetted national parks which inclusive of 6 marine parks. There are 8 national parks located in Peninsular Malaysia, 7 are in Sabah and 15 are in Sarawak. A summary of the national parks in Malaysia is in Table 1.
Table 1: List of National Parks in Malaysia
Location
Parks
Date established
Size (ha)/area
Attractions
Peninsular Malaysia
Taman Negara National Park, within 3 state boundaries of
Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu
1939
434,300 hectares
Largest in the country
Canopy walk
Wildlife observation
Endau-Rompin National Park,
Johor-Pahang border
49,000 hectares
Rock formation
Sandstone plateau
Tropical forest
Tanjung Piai Johor National Park, Johor
2001
Wetlands
Coastal mangrove
Bird watching and fishing
Penang National Park, Penang
2003
2,562 hectares
Meromictic lake
Wetlands
Mangroves
Coral reefs
Turtle nesting beaches
Payar Marine Park, Kedah
1985
Covers 2 nautical miles of 4 islands
Coral reefs
Marine life
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Redang Marine Park, Terengganu
1985
25 square km
Coral reefs
Marine life
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Tioman Marine Park, Pahang
39 km long and 12 km wide
Coral reefs
Marine life
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Mountainous
Mersing Marine Park, Johor
White beaches
Coral reefs
Sabah
Crocker Range National Park
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Montane forest
Pulau Tiga Park
Coral reefs
Beach forest
Kinabalu Park
4,101 metres above sea level
Mount climbing
Tunku Abdul Rahman Park
Beach forest
Turtle Island Park
Turtle nesting beach
Tawau Hills Park
27,972 hectare
Sarawak
Bako National Park
1957
2727
The oldest park
Heath forest
Open scrubland
Mangrove
Kubah National Park
1988
2230
The world of palm
Montane forest
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Heath forest
Gunung Gading National Park
1983
4196
Home of rafflesia
Montane forest
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Batang Ai national Park
1990
24040
Home of orang utan
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Riparian forest
Regenerated forest
Tanjung Datu National Park
1994
1379
The smallest park
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Beach forest
Niah National Park
1974
3138
The archeological site of Sarawak
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Limestone forest vegetation
Heath forest
Lambir Hills National Park
1975
6949
The virgin rainforest of Sarawak
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Heath forest
Gunung Mulu National park
1974
52865
The biggest cave chamber in the world
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Limestone forest vegetation
Montane forest
Similajau National Park, Bintulu
1976
8996
Where the rapids meet the sea
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Beach forest
Mangrove forest
Talang-Satang National Park
1999
Sarawak's turtle islands
Marine turtle conservation
Bukit Tiban National Park, Bintulu
2000
Conservation and research demonstration
Water-based recreation
Wildlife watching
Jungle trekking
Maludam National Park, Sri Aman
2000
Peat swamp
The last viable red banded langur population (monkey)
Rajang Mangroves National Park, Sarikei
2000
The mangrove ecosystem
Mangrove forest
Gunung Buda National Park
2001
The newest national park
Limestone forest
Loagan Bunut National Park
1990
10736
The largest natural lake
Peat swamp forest
Mixed dipterocarp forest
Source: http://www.malaysiamydestination.com
Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, 2006
In this study, the scope is limited to the terrestrial protected area i.e. national park area, which is the most recognizable category of protected areas. As recreation is one of the reasons of the designation of these national park areas, they are view as the important contributor to the tourism industry.
Sarawak National Parks
Modern parks and reserves were established in the late 1800s. With this, Sarawak attempts began with the existence of the National Park Ordinance in 1956 and the establishment of a Board of Trustees to administer this. In 1973, there is a change in the administration of national parks, where the Board of Trustees is replaced by the Conservator of Forests. Since then, Sarawak Forestry Corporation has been charged with the responsibility of enforcing the ordinance. Sarawak Forestry Corporation managed all 15 terrestrial and marine parks in Sarawak state which covers the total area of 184,922 ha.
The objectives of the National Parks and Wildlife Division (NPWD) are:-
To establish and manage the National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, nature Reserves, Forest Parks and other equivalent reserves throughout Sarawak.
To provide recreational and other facilities in National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, nature Reserves, Forest Parks and other equivalent reserves.
To develop an effective publicity and extension service on nature conservation.
To undertake research in the ecology, preservation and propagation of wildlife and their natural habitat.
There are four branches within the NPWD, namely Parks and Nature Reserves Branch, Wildlife Branch, Planning & Development branch and Interpretation & Conservation Education Branch. The main responsibilities of Parks and Reserves Branch include overall management of all parks and reserves. The Wildlife Branch main activities are wildlife management and research. These include habitat management, captive breeding, species management veterinary, enforcement and licensing. The research is mainly on primates, large and small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. The Planning and Development Branch is responsible to manage the Planning and Investigation Unit and the Design and Implementation Unit. Lastly, the Interpretation and Conservation Education Branch is responsible for four units which are Interpretation Unit, Conservation Education and Extension Unit, Research Unit and Administration Unit.
Bako National Park (BNP) was the first to be gazetted as a protected area on 1 May 1957 among all the 15 national parks in Sarawak. It is located 37 kilometers to the east of the capital city of Kuching. Covering an area or 2727 hectares of a rugged sand stone, in the map, BNP is at the tip of the Muara Tebas peninsular. It was only until 1985, the road from Kuching to BNP was completed and in order to access to the park, it requires a short express boat journey of about 25 minutes ride along the Bako River. BNP is one of the smallest national parks in Sarawak, yet recorded as one of the highest rate of visitors to date. BNP is famous for its rainforest, forest wildlife, jungle streams, waterfalls, plant life, secluded beaches and trekking trails. The jungle trekking trails are well maintained network of 16 colour-coded walking trails, from easy strolls, full day treks to overnight camping expeditions which allows the visitors to get to the most out of its unique environment.
The following table provides details of trekking journey in BNP.
No
Name of trail
Trail length
(km)
One way time & Distance from HQ
Colour Code
1
Tanjung Sapi
0.5
30 minutes (0.8km)
White/Red
2
Telok Paku
0.8
1 hour (1.2 km)
White
3
Ulu Assam
0.8
1 ¼ hours (1.4km)
Blue/Red
4
Telok Delima
0.25
45 minutes (1km)
Blue/White
5
Telok Pandan Besar
0.75
1 hour (1.75km)
Yellow
6
Telok Pandan Kecil
1.5
1 ½ hours (2.5km)
Yeloow
7
Serait
1.25
1 ½ hours (2.2km)
White/yellow
8
Lintang
5.25
3 ½ hours return
Red
9
Tajor
2.75
2 ½ hours (3.5km)
Red/White
10
Tanjung Rhu
1.8
2 ½ hours ( 4.2km)
Red/Yellow
11
Bukit Keruing
2.25
3 ½ hours (5.5km)
Blue
12
Paya Jelutong
0.2
3 ½ hours (5.7km)
White/Blue
13
Bukit Gondol
2
4 ½ hours (7.7km)
Yellow/White
14
Ulu Serait
2.75
3 hours (4.8km)
Blue/yellow
15
Telok Sibur
0.8
3 ½ hours (5.3km)
Red/Black
16
Telok Limau
5.75
7 hours (10km)
Red/Blue
17
Telok Kruin
1.5
7 ¼ hours (10.5km)
Blue/Black
18
Pa' Amit (Lakei Island)
1.0
30 minutes (from Base)
Orange
Revised Fess and Accommodation Charges
Effective 1 July 2002
Entrance Fees
Visitor Category
Single Entry (per person)
Multiple Entry
(Non-transferable)
(per person)
5-Entry Pass
(Transferable valid for 1 person)
1-month validity
3-months validity
Adult
RM10.00
RM50.00
RM100.00
RM40.00
Student/Senior Citizen/Disabled person
RM5.00
RM25.00
RM50.00
RM20.00
Mixed Group*
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Child, 6 years and below
Free
Free
Free
Free
Type of accomodation
Facilities
Rate per night
No. of units available
Forest lodge, Type 5
2 rooms with 3 single beds each
Non-air conditioned
Fan only
Shared bathroom and toilet
RM100+ per room
or
RM150+ per house
7
Forest Lodge, Type 6
2 rooms with 2 single beds each
Non-air conditioned
Fan only
Attached bathroom and toilet
RM50+ per room
or
RM75+ per house
2
Forest Hostel
4 rooms with 4 single beds each
Non-air conditioned
Fan only
Shared bathroom and toilet
RM15+ per bed
or
RM40+ per room
3
Camp site (camping equipment is not provided)
Public bathrooms and toilets
RM5 per person
18 sites
+ Plus 5% government service tax
Source: http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my
Rules and Regulations
The rules and regulations are there to protect the park for the benefits of visitors.
It is an offence to:-
Enter without a permit;
Kill, capture, poison or disturb any animal;
Cut, remove, destroy or set fire to any object; living or non-living, dead or alive,
Introduce any animal or plant onto the park;
Damage, erect any building or other structures;
Litter
Penalties:
The minimum fine for the above offences is RM1,000 and six months imprisonment.
Permit:
Visitors must obtain a certified permit before entering the national Parks, nature Reserves or Wildlife Centre from the nearest booking offices. For professional film makers and those carrying out expeditions, a special permission from the Sarawak State Secretary must be acquired in advance.
Exclusion of liabilities:
Any person visiting Sarawak's national parks, nature reserves and wildlife centres enter at their own risk. The permit to enter is granted subject to the condition that the Forest Department and/or the State Government and/or Officer shall not be responsible for any physical, mental or emotional injury sustained, or any loss of life, or property or whatsoever kind within these areas. The State Government of it Officer disclaims any act(s) or omission however caused or arisen within these areas.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Economic Valuation of Environment
Policy makers in developed countries have realized that it is important to take into account the economic valuation in the process of decision making. However, in developing country like Malaysia, the valuation of environmental good is regarded as unfamiliar. Though researches regarding this issue in Malaysia published are found to be rare, the finding proved that our country also give values on environmental goods.
Economic valuation refers to the measurement on terms of money values to non-marketed goods and services. Non-marketed goods and services include those which cannot be directly bought and sold in the open market place.
Goods and services which have economic value contribute positively to human wellbeing. This is determined by the preferences of the individuals which show the level of satisfaction. These preferences can be revealed in the context of willingness to pay (WTP). On the contrary, human wellbeing will also need to tolerate with the unwanted values which revealed in the context of willingness to accept (WTA).
Economic valuation technique aims to determine the total economic value (TEV). TEV identifies the changes in human wellbeing that accrue from a change in the provision of the good. These values may accrue to users and non users. The examples for this would be the willingness to pay for the preservation of the forest in the national park and the conservation of endangered species like the proboscis monkey, even though the individual may not have seen the species while in the national park.
TEV is made up of the sum of use and non-use value. Use values may be direct or indirect. An example for this would be a forest in a national park. Visitors to the forest make direct use of it and the fact that the forest protecting the watershed of the region is an example of an indirect use. A non-use value, also known as passive use values, is when individuals are willing to pay even though they make no direct use of it.
There are two methods in estimating the economic values of non-marketed goods and services which are revealed preferences (RP) and stated preferences (SP). RP and SP can be use to estimate the use value, however non-use values can only be estimated by SP techniques. RP is exercised when the preference of the individuals is revealed by their purchasing habit in the actual market, which is price-based. In contrast, SP measures the demand of goods and services which do not have market price as they are not directly sold. Normally, the survey would ask on how much money would individuals are WTP or WTA to enjoy the benefit of the goods and services, for example, the existence of the environment.
Property market (WTP)
Labour market (WTA)
Contingent ranking
Contingent (conjoint) rating
Choice experiments
Paired comparisons
Market prices (WTP)
Contingent valuation (WTP/WTA)
Choice modelling (WTP/WTA)
Averting behaviour (WTP)
Random utility/ discrete choice models (WTP)
Hedonic pricing
Travel cost method (WTP)
Benefit transfer
Stated Preferences
hypothetical markets
does response/production functions
Total Economic Value
Non-use Value
Use Value
Revealed Preferences
conventional and proxy
Figure 1 Economic valuation techniques
Developed countries as well as the developing countries have accepted that environmental goods can be measured using several methods. In developed countries, the methods used are advance where they have applied the use of benefit transfer into their researches. However in Malaysia, the most common is CVM and only recently CM was adopted in researches done by………………………..
Revealed preferences technique
Stated preference technique
SP technique which ask hypothetical questions, are categorized into contingent valuation (CV) and multi-attribute valuation (MAV) (Anna Merino-Castello, 2003).
Contingent Valuation (CV)
CV measures the WTP through direct questions such as "How much are you willing to pay?' and 'Are you willing to pay RMx?'. The former estimates the individual preferences using the open-ended method which is preference based. The latter question estimates the individual preferences using the referendum or dichotomous choice elicitation. The respondents are only given the option of answering yes or no, which is choice-based. This implies the assumption of random utility function where the coefficients value are obtained through the estimation of binary logit using the maximum likelihood procedure.
However, an increasing number of empirical studies revealed that dichotomous choice results seemed to be significantly larger that open-ended values, possibly due to 'yeah-saying' (Hanley et al., 2001). Both open-ended and dichotomous CV approaches have limitations in estimating values. These limitations are:
1. only one attribute to be valued by respondent
2. respondents are unlikely to give accurate response for hypothetical market
3. May induce some respondents to behave strategically when public goods are involved
Due to these limitations, researches in valuation of non-use value switching to the alternative stated preference technique which is MAV. The main difference between CV and MAV is that CV analyses one attribute of the product at a time whilst MAV analyses more than one attribute simultaneously. This includes whether the attributes are attached to one another or a tradeoffs between them.
Choice Modelling (CM)
Similar to CV, MAV can be categorized into preference-based and choice-based method. In preference-based, the respondents are required to rate or rank each alternative product in hypothetical and real market.
On the other hand, in choice-based method, the respondents need to choose one among several alternatives products which is more realistic because the respondents perform this everyday as a consumer choosing a series of competing products. In preference-based, the respondents does not require making any commitment to choose a particular option, therefore this is the reason why choice-based method is more preferred than preference-based approach.
Preference-based method is generally termed as conjoint analysis (CA) which comprises of contingent rating and paired comparison while choice-based method globally termed as choice modeling (CM) which comprises of contingent ranking and choice experiment.
CA and CM are differentiated by the form of the utility function. CA use a deterministic utility function and CM use the random utility function. Deterministic utility function is assumed to be related to an individual's rating via a transformation function ø:
Uij = ø[Vij(Xij)]
This data is estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques which implies the assumption of the cardinality of ratings scale (Bateman et al, 2002). In contrast, CM use random utility function which represents the integrated behavioral theory of decision behavior and is composed of a deterministic component Vij and s stochastic εij:
Uij = Vij (Xij) + εij
This random utility theory (RUT) leads to the discrete choice models which describes the behavior of respondents' choice probabilities in response to changes in attributes that measure differences across other respondents. This data is estimated using the maximum likelihood method. All these four methods in multi-attribute valuation differ in the quality of information they generate, in their degree of complexity and also in their ability to produce WTP estimates that can be shown to be consistent with the usual measures of welfare (Bateman et al, 2002).
In contingent rating, respondents are presented with a number of events one at a time and are asked to rate each one individually in a numeric scale. The rating is then transformed into utility scale. This indirect utility function is assumed to be related to respondents' rating via a transformation function which leads to a typical analyzed using OLS regression technique. As mentioned before, this implies strong assumptions of cardinality of rating scales. This is inconsistent with the consumer theory. Hence, contingent rating does not produce welfare consistent value estimates.
In paired comparison, respondents are asked to choose their preferred alternative out of a set of two choices and to determine their preference in a numeric scale. The utility function is also estimated using OLS.
In a contingent ranking, respondents are required to rank a set of alternative options from most to least preferred. Each alternative has two or more attributes, which are offered at different levels across options. The respondents are required to rank their options. One of the options must be the current feasible choice set of the respondent. The reason is, if the status quo is not included, the respondents may be forced to choose the alternatives which they not prefer at all. This rank order data is estimated using maximum likelihood procedure.
In choice experiment, respondents are given a series of alternatives and are required to indicate their most preferred option. The baseline alternative, which is the status quo, need to be included in each of the choice set. This experiment gives welfare consistent estimates because,
1. the respondents needs to trade-off changes in attribute levels against the cost of making these changes
2. the respondents can choose the status quo
3. we can represent the econometric technique used in a way which is exactly parallel to the theory of rational and probabilistic choice.
4. we can derive estimates of compensating and equivalent surplus.
This conditional logit model can be estimated using the maximum likelihood procedure.
METHODOLOGY
