4.3. Challenges faced by the tourist at Perhentian Island Kecil
4.3.1. Problems encountered during the eco-tourism services
Table 4.3.1 Problems encountered during the ecotourism services
Statement Mean Std. D
Overcharged for renting boats and overpriced foods and drinks. 2.85 1.193 The logistics services provided by tourist operator are not
delivered as promised. 3.27 1.162
Lack of friendliness of local community. 2.84 1.393
Lack of information on the eco-tourism destination (e.g. who to
seek for assistance during emergency). 3.67 1.375
Some tourist operators have no knowledge on sustainable eco-
tourism leading to the degradation of environment. 3.82 1.278 Any bad occurrence of safety and security issues which relate to
eco-tourism sites. 3.44 1.214
Short operating hours for logistics facilities in serving the
tourists (local and foreigner). 3.55 1.412
Lack of signage and essential direction. 2.82 1.156
Poor logistics services can be a drawback to eco-tourism. 3.42 1.212 Table 4.3.1 shows that the highest mean with 3.82 and Standard Deviation of 1.278 is ―some tourist‘s operator has no knowledge on sustainable eco-tourism leading to the degradation of environment.‖ The respondents sometimes noticed that some tourist operators have some poor code of conduct. On the other hand, ―lack of signage and essential direction‖ is the lowest with a mean of 2.82 and Standard Deviation of 1.156.
The respondents rarely see this as a problem and the only concern is that some signage‘s are not in English.
This study aims to answer the following objectives:
38 1. To identify the significant factor of tourist expectation in sustainable ecotourism at Perhentian Island Kecil Terengganu, Malaysia.
2. To identify the significant problem faced by the tourist at Perhentian Island Kecil Terengganu, Malaysia
For objective (1) the results showed that all factors to measure tourists‘
expectation level towards sustainable ecotourism scored a ‗Neutral‘ to ‗Agree‘ level (M=
3.38 - 4.49) based on 5 point Likert scale. Since the objective of this research is to identify the significant factor of tourist expectation, table 5.1 summarized the highest to lowest mean distribution and their standard deviation.
Table 5.1. Summary of Objective 1
FACTORS MEAN
STANDARD DEVIATION Community
- Tourist should encourage the local community to adapt eco-friendly practices.
4.49 0.742
Environment
- Local residents‘ livelihood activities threaten the environment.
4.45 0.765
Safety and Security
- Personal safety is a major concern to tourists.
4.36 0.620
Socio- Economic
- Improving infrastructure is harming and degrading the ecosystem.
4.29 0.567
39 For objective (2) the results showed that the tourist scored a ‗rarely‘ to
‗sometimes‘ (M= 2.82 – 3.82) level of problems faced by them in terms of ecotourism services. Table 5.2 summarized the highest to lowest mean distribution and their standard deviation of the problems faced by the tourist at Perhentian island Kecil.
Table 5.2 Summary of Objective 2
Statement MEAN
STANDARD DEVIATION Some tourist operators have no knowledge on sustainable eco-
tourism leading to the degradation of environment.
3.82 1.278
Lack of information on the eco-tourism destination (e.g. who to seek for assistance during emergency).
3.67 1.375
Short operating hours for logistics facilities in serving the tourists (local and foreigner).
3.55 1.412
Any occurrence of safety and security issues which relate to eco- tourism sites.
3.44 1.214
Poor logistics services can be a drawback to eco-tourism. 3.42 1.212 The logistics services provided by tourist operator are not delivered
as promised.
3.27 1.162
Human Disturbance in surrounding development at eco-tourism sites. 2.85 1.193
Lack of friendliness of local community. 2.84 1.393
Lack of signage and essential direction. 2.82 1.156
Based on the findings, of all tourist expectation towards sustainable ecotourism in Environment, Community, Socio-Economic and Safety and Security the most significant
40 factor is the ―Tourist should encourage the local community to adapt eco-friendly practices‖ with the highest mean of 4.49 and Standard Deviation of 0.742 which means the respondents agreed about this statement.
Figure 4.3.1 Kampung Pasir Hantu Village Figure 4.3.2 Local villager and her son
Environmental actions not only protect the resources on which tourism development is based but also strengthens society‘s environmental awareness, an imperative requirement for the prevention of the environment‘s degradation. According to Kasprzyk (2006) reckless exploitation of the environment is very common in places where local communities do not engage in the development of local policy.
If the local community is environmentally aware and knowledgeable then they can play significant role in the protection and conservation of natural attractions that represent a source of a destination‘s competitive advantage. A sustainable environment incorporates a positive impact on the communities‘ quality of life, encouraging people to
41 stay in the locality and place their energy into local development. Eventually this has a positive impact on the standard and attractiveness of the destination‘s tourism product, as satisfied residents generate the good ambiance of the place, visitors will surely appreciate it. Pender and Sharpley (2008) agree that ‗the local community ought to be viewed not as deleterious to environmental management but as architects of their own development. A local community‘s cultural perspective towards the environment should be recognized and utilized. Willet (2010) study about the environmental attitudes of tourist and residents in Cornwall showed that ‗tourists favored the preservation of the utopian landscape whereas the residents would prefer a more actively economic development of the area.‘
Most importantly, the enthusiastic environmental attitudes of local communities will definitely contribute to a clean environment making the destination more captivating to tourists, a better condition of life for the local population, and eventually attract new tourist and/or makes visitors return to the destination in the future.
The findings also revealed that the most significant problem faced by the tourist is
―some tourist operators have no knowledge on sustainable eco-tourism leading to the degradation of environment.‖
In terms of business settings, many tourist operators are attempting to take advantage of ecotourism by using the word 'ecotourism' as a marketing tool to sell their products or promote their site (green washing) rather than offering the real ecotourism experience.
The researcher observed that, many of the activities offered by operators for tourists were nature based and were focused mostly in the marine environment. Some
42 operators share similar water activity sites, with no restriction set of tourist numbers using the sites any time, or the number of times an operator wishes to use the site in a week. In this case, operators did not evaluate the natural carrying capacity of an area used. Altering the carrying capacity of an environment can generally deteriorate the situation of what an environment is capable of coping with. Furthermore, some of the operators did not have written regulations and they lack codes of conduct provided to tourists regarding friendly use of the environment. Instead, tourists were "verbally"
reminded of the 'dos' and 'donts' upon arrival in the tourist site as part of their briefing.
The purpose of the code of conduct is to limit the negative impact of human presence on the natural habitat and to encourage the preservation of natural and cultural heritage (Tourism Quebec 2010). The debacle to provide a standard protocol or a code of conduct could affect the tourists having less respect towards the environment.
Figure 4.3.3. Snorkeling
43 Figure 4.3.4 Regular business day at Perhentian Island Kecil
44