Malaysia Tourism Essay

Evolvement of Tourism Policies by decades or in terms of Five-year Malaysia Plans
The magnitude of Malaysia’s tourism development significance can be seen through a five-year plan showing every aspect of Malaysia; which has always emphasized tourism as an important source of national income. Consequently, the strategy of tourism development in Malaysia has always enacted in accordance with the Five-Year Plan so all tourism plans are reached and materialized.
Despite the existence of leisure and tourism activities in Malaysia in the colonial times, the government involvement in tourism development only started in 1953 with the official opening of the Cultural Department, and in 1959, the Department of Tourism was set up by the Ministry of Trade.

The central point of the tourism development strategy in the phase of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005) was to focus on new product developments, such as eco-tourism, agro-tourism, cultural tourism, heritage tourism, and Malaysia My Second Home. Improving the image of tourism destination was aimed in line with the creation of major tourist events and large-scale programmes leading to improved levels of safety, cleanliness,comfort,and develop tourism facilities and infrastructure in the Tenth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010). Furthermore, there was increased focus on the state’s tourism development direction, based on the nine core areas of eco-tourism, heritage tourism, homestay tourism, coastal and island tourism, sports tourism, meetings and exhibition tourism, golf tourism, food tourism, shopping, and health

The National Ecotourism Plan was prepared by MOCAT in 1997, consisting of 25 guidelines among other matters. It covers the aspects of categorizing sites and activities, carrying capacity and limits of acceptable change, marine parks and islands, national parks and reserves, use of local accomodation, accreditation of ecotourism products, and visitors’ roles and responsibilities among many others.
WWF Malaysia estimates that Malaysia gains RM655 million per year from ecotourism. This figure is rather small compared to the estimated RM24 Billion tourism brings into the economy. Malaysia has 54 protected areas of more than 1,000 hectares, totaling 1, 483 million ha. Or about 4.5 % of the land surface of the country. They include 28 district nature reserve, where 90,070 ha. Are not opened to tourism activity (Norizan, 2000). Among the main national parks are Gunung Mulu National Park, Endau-Rompin, Kinabalu National Park, Rantau Abang Turtle Hatchery, Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary, and