Developing criteria and indicators for responsible rural tourism in taman negara national park (tnnp), malaysia.

THE MALAYSIAN FORESTER 74 (2): 143-156 (2011)

DEVELOPING CRITERIA AND INDICATORS FOR

RESPONSIBLE RURAL TOURISM IN TAMAN

NEGARA NATIONAL PARK (TNNP), MALAYSIA

SIOW MAY LING18'4, ZAABA ZAINOL ABIDIN2,

VIKNESWARAN NAIR3, SRIDAR RAMACHANDRAN1&4'

AND AHMAD SHUIB4

Faculty of Forestry. Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor .

`Department of Wildlife & National Parks, KM.10 Jalan Cheras. 56100 Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia.

Taylor's University, School of Hospitality. Tourism & Culinary Arts. No. 1, Jalan 'Taylor's,

47500 Subang Java, Selangor , Malaysia.

4 Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), 43400 UPM, Serdang,

Selangor. Malaysia

Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor. Malaysia

*Corresponding author: sridarupm(&gmail.com

Abstract: The tourism industry in Malaysia is being transformed from low

yield to high yield income. With the launch of the Economic Transformation

Programme (ETP), Malaysia is set to achieve high income nation status by the

end of the decade. Rural tourism and ecotourism is growing at a phenomenal

rate in Malaysia and is expected to be a major contributor to the nation's

tourism receipt. Nonetheless, in the last decade, the concept of ecotourism and

rural tourism has melded with mainstream tourism to lose its distinctness.

Consequently, the tourism industry's growth through-out the years has created

an increasing amount of stress economically, socially and environmentally. For

a sustainable development of the rural tourism sector, the benefits must be

equitably distributed among the private interests, public sector, tourists and

local population. Criteria and indicators of sustainability that reflect the costs

and benefits must be precise yet simple enough to be understood and easily

implemented by field staff. The objective of this study is to develop criteria and

indicators of sustainability for Taman Negara. The study uses Delphi technique

to identify and develop a set of priority criteria and indicators, which is used to

determine the sustainability of the development of Taman Negara National

Park. The results of the study produced a set of 15 criteria and 58 indicators of

sustainability which are comparable to the lists adopted by international,

regional and national programs in the development of criteria and indicators.

The indicators encompass the components of economic, social and

environmental values associated with responsible development. These

indicators will then be used in the development of a tourism barometer that will

act as a national integrated tourism management system. This fundamental

study plays an important role in innovating new approaches by developing

indicators to holistically measure the multi-dimensional relationships between

different tourism models and the linkages to local economies and environment

in key natural and rural destinations in Malaysia.

Key words: responsible tourism indicators, rural tourism, Delphi technique,

Taman Negara National Park (TNNP).

INTRODUCTION

In line with Malaysia's goal to achieve high-income-nation status by 2020, the

Tourism Transformation Plan 2020 with 12 New Key Economic Areas (NKEA) in

143