Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism in Malaysia: Assessing the Community Perspectives
Abstract
Climate change is a critical issue today which significantly affected the ecosystem of the community. The government of Malaysia has constructed and implemented numerous policy and plan in order to curb the climate change but it is sad to see that this country is still at the moderate phase of overcoming the issue. Climate change consequences on tourism are crucial because it increases the danger of species extinction, decreases freshwater, increases wildfire accidents, heat waves, and illnesses, all of which cause visitors to avoid certain places. Being aware of climate change consequently help the communities to prepare for its effects. As a result, the community is also becoming more educated and able to develop proactive and reactive measures to combat climate change and reducing their social vulnerability. Hence, this study surveyed the impacts of climate change on tourism in Malaysia by assessing the perspectives of the community. The researcher had distributed questionnaire survey to 400 respondents representing the communities in various destinations in Malaysia which are directly and indirectly affected by climate change. The findings indicated that three domains derived and were named as socio-economic impacts, physical impacts and environmental impacts. This study significantly provides the tourism stakeholders in Malaysia to understand in-depth the perceptions of the community towards the impacts of climate change on tourism and taking further actions to overcome the issues.
Downloads
References
Anup K.C. (2017). Climate change and its impacts on tourism in Nepal. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality, 7, 25-43. https://doi.org/10.3126/jthe.v7i0.17688
Andrews, D., Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (2003). Conducting research on the internet: Online survey design, development and implementation guidelines. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 16(2), 185-210.
Becken, S., & Hay, J. (2012). From policy to practice. In Climate change and tourism. Routledge.
Becken, S. (2017). Evidence of a low-carbon tourism paradigm? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(6), 832-850. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2016.1251446
Becken, S. (2019). Decarbonising tourism: Mission impossible? Tourism Recreation Research, 44(4), 419-433. https://doi.org/10. 1080/02508281.2019.1598042
Canalejo C. (2016). Local community perceptions on tourist impacts and associated development: A case study on Sal and Boa Vista Islands. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(1), 383- 394. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1s1p383
Carter, M.R., & Barrett, C.B. (2006). The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach. Journal of Development Studies, 42(2), 178-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380500405261
Crossman, J., Futter, M.N., Oni, S.K., Whitehead, P.G., Jin, L., Butterfield, D., Baulch, H., & Dillon, P.J. (2013). Impacts of climate change on hydrology and water quality: future proofing management strategies in the Lake Simcoe watershed, Canada. Journal of. Great Lakes Res. 39, 19–32.
Dawson, R.J., Thompson, D., Johns, D., Wood, R., Darch, G., Chapman, L., Hughes, P.N., Watson, G.V., Paulson, K., Bell, S., Gosling, S.N., Powrie, W., & Hall, J.W. (2018). A systems framework for national assessment of climate risks to infrastructure. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 376(2121), 20170298. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0298
de Oliveira, E., Reynaud, E., & Osiurak, F. (2019). Roles of technical reasoning, theory of mind, creativity, and fluid cognition in cumulative technological culture. Human Nature, 30(3), 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-019-09349-1
Gossling S., & Scott D. (2018). The decarbonisation impasses: Global tourism leader's view on climate change mitigation. Journal of sustainable tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1529770
Hall, C.M., Amelung, B., Cohen, S., Eijgelaar, E., Gössling, S., Higham, J. (2015). Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research. Tourism Management, 47(4), 352-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TOURMAN.2014.08.009
Hallegatte, S., Vogt-Schilb, A., Bangalore, M., & Rozenberg, J. (2017). Unbreakable: Building the resilience of the poor in the face of natural disasters. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1003-9
Hein, L., Metzger, M.J., & A. Moreno, A. (2009). Potential impacts of climate change on tourism: a case study for Spain. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 1(2), 170-178.
Howard, P.E.N., Rainie, L., & Jones, S. (2001). Days and nights on the internet: The impact of the diffusing technology. American Behavioural Scientist, 45(3), 383-404. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764201045003003
IPCC. (2018). Linking climate change and development goals: framing, integrating, and measuring. Climate and Development, 4(2), 141-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2012.726195
Jalil, A., Muhammad, T., & Idrees, M. (2013). Tourism–growth nexus in Pakistan: Evidence from ARDL bounds tests. Economic Modelling, 35, 185-191.
Jones, A., & Phillips, M. (2015). Disappearing destination: climate change and future challenges for coastal tourism. CEUR Workshop Proceedings.
Joppe, M. (2018). Tourism policy and governance. Tourism Management Perspectives, 25, 201-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2017.11.011
Klein R.J.T, Midgley G.F, & Preston B.L. (2014). Adaptation opportunities, constraints, and limits. In: Climate change 2014 impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: part a: global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of working group II to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 899-943. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415379
Klock, C., & Nunn, P.D. (2019). Adaptation to climate change in small island developing states. A systematic literature review of academic research. Journal of Environment & Development, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496519835895
Lenzen, M., Sun, Y., Faturay, F., Ting, Y., Geschke, A., & Malik, A. (2018). The carbon footprint of global tourism. Nature Climate Change, 8(6), 522-528. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x
Mora C., Spirandelli D., Franklin, E.C., Lynham J., Kantar, M.B., Miles W., & Barba, E.W. (2018). Broad thread to humanity from cumulative climate hazards intensified by greenhouse gas emissions. Nature climate change, 8(12), 1026.
Moser, C.O.N. (Ed.). (2004). Reducing Global Poverty: The Case for Asset Accumulation. Brookings Institution Press.
Mukogo, R. (2014). Greening of the Tourism Sector an Effective Mitigation Measure against Climate Change. Vermont: International Institute for Peace through Tourism.
Mumtaz, M., Puppim de Oliveira, J.A., & Ali, S.H. (2019). Climate change impacts and adaptation in the agricultural sector: the case of local responses. Climate Change Agric., 1-14. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83553
Nazir, N., Bilal, S., Bhat, K., Shah, T., Badri, Z., Bhat, F., Wani, T., Mugal, M., Parveen, S., & Dorjey, S. (2018). Effect of climate change on plant diseases. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 7(06), 250-256. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.706.030
Nicholls, R.J., Goodwin, P., Haigh, I.D., Lincke, D., Vafeidis, A.T., & Hinkel, J. (2018). Quantifying land and people exposed to sea-level rise with no mitigation and 1.5°C and 2.0°C rise in global temperatures to year 2300. Earth's Future, 6(3), 583-600. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ef000738
Nyamwange, M. (2016). Impacts of climate change on tourism in Kenya. Journal of Geography and Earth Sciences, 4(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.15640/jges.v4n2a1
Piggott-McKellar, A. (2015). Last Chance Tourism: Are We Loving the Great Barrier Reef to Death? University of Queensland. University of Queensland.
Scott, D., & Gössling, S. (2018). Tourism and Climate Change Mitigation. Embracing the Paris Agreement: Pathways to Decarbonisation. https:// etc-corporate.org/uploads/2018/03/ETC-ClimateChange-Report_FINAL.pdf
Scott, D., Hall, C. M., & Gossling, S. (2019). A Global Climate Change Vulnerability Index for the tourism sector. Annals of Tourism Research, 77, 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.05.007
Siddique, G. (2018). Climate change and livelihood vulnerability of the local population on Sagar Island, India. Chinese Geographical Science, 29(3), 417-436.
Simpson, M.C., Gossling, S., Scott, D., Hall, C.M., & Gladin, E. (2008). Climate change adaptation and mitigation in the tourism sector: Frameworks, tools and practices. UNEP, University of Oxford, UNWTO, WMO.
Thomas, C., Cameron, A., Green, R., Bakkenes, M., Beaumont, L., Collingham, Y., Erasmus, B., Marinez Ferreira De Siqueira, Grainger, A., Hannah, L., Hughes, L., Huntley, B., Van Jaarsveld, A., Midgley, G., Miles, L., Ortega-Huerta, M., Townsend Peterson, A., Phillips, O., & E Williams, S. (2004). Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427, 145–148 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02121
Thompson, L.F., Surface, E.A., Martin, D.L., & Sanders, M.G. (2003). From paper to fixels: Moving personnel surveys to the web. Personnel Psychology, 56(1), 192-227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00149x.
Tourism Malaysia. (2020). Tourist arrivals. https://mytourismdata.tourism.gov.my/?page_id=14#!range=year&from=2016&to=2019&type=55872e6e2bd39,55872c90df266&destination=34MY
UNWTO. (2018). World tourism barometer.
UNWTO. (2019, December 27). International Seminar on Harnessing Cultural Tourism through Innovation and Technology, 12-14 November 2018, Hamedan, Islamic Republic of Iran. https://www.unwto.org/global/event/40th-unwto-affiliate-members-plenarysession-international-seminar-harnessing-cultural-tourism
Whitehead, P., Jin, L., Macadam, I., Janes, T., Sarkar, S., Rodda, H.J., Sinha, R., & Nicholls, R.J. (2018). Corrigendum to modelling impacts of climate change and socio-economic change on the Ganga, Brahmaputra, Meghna, Hooghly and Mahanadi river systems in India and Bangladesh. [Stoten 636 (2018) 1362–1372]. Science of The Total Environment, 644, 1651-1652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.180
Whitehead, P.G., Crossman, J., Balana, B.B., Futter, M.N., Comber, S., Jin, L., Skuras, D., Wade, A.J., Bowes, M.J., & Read, D.S. (2013). Research article: A cost-effectiveness analysis of water security and water quality: impacts of climate and land-use change on the River Thames system. Phil. Trans. R. Soc, 1-17.
World Bank. (2013). Infographic: Building Low-Carbon Cities. Washington: Authors.
World Bank. (2017). https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2017/06/07/tourism-knowledge-exchange-2017
World Tourism Organization. (2018). UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2018 Edition. UNWTO Elibrary. https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419876
World Tourism Organization. (2020, January 5). Malaysia: Country-specific: Arrivals of non-resident tourists at national borders, by nationality 2015 - 2019 (07.2020): Tourism statistics: Vol , no 1.
WTTC. (2016a, November 30). Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2016 World. ttp://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/regions%-202016/world2016.pdf
WTTC. (2016b, November 30). Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2016 Malaysia. http://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/regions%-202016/world2016.pdf
Zhang, K.Q., Douglas, B.C., & Leatherman, S.P. (2004). Global warming and coastal erosion. Climatic Change, 64(1/2), 41-58.
