SANDAKAN: Community-based tourism, said to be an effective poverty reduction and wealth distribution tool, requires systematic and sustainable approaches instead of ad hoc methods, said Tourism Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng.
He said the long-term viability of community-based tourism projects, which required careful planning, commitment and perseverance, was a prime concern.
“Appropriate policy interventions and physical infrastructure should be in place to ensure community-based tourism is developed in a sustainable manner.
“Community capacity building should also be initiated and a collective vision of what the community aspires to be and how it will progress and supports itself are some of the issues that need to be resolved,” he said when opening the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Conference on Community-based Tourism here.
The four-day conference is being attended by 65 delegates, 12 of them from Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Dr Ong said community-based tourism was gradually becoming a mainstream development tool and was extensively being used in the planning and development of Malaysia’s new economic corridors such as the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Iskandar Malaysia and the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC).
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