Tourism Policy and Organization:Case Study of Penang National Park

DOI

10.2991/atf-16.2016.6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Penang, tourism policy, ecotourism, national park, wildlife, turtle sanctuary, MeromicticLake

Abstract

The Penang National Park (PNP), the smallest national park in the world, was formerly known as Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve. Penang National Park processes some unique characteristics. Among them, its diversity of ecological habitats, the rich fauna and the number of unique flora found. The Penang National Park is one of the few remaining areas on Penang Island which still comprises natural rainforest and small mammals. This park has a number of habitats like dipterocarp forest, riparian, mangroves, coastal area and Meromictic Lake. It is one of the few natural heritages in Northern Peninsular Malaysia with unique feature such as Meromictic Lake which natural process of inundating and drawing out water from this lake happen intermittently and its bottom layer is made up of warm salt water from the sea, and the upper layer comprising cool and fresh water from river and rain. Declared as national park in 2003, these features could prove to be potentials and opportunities for ecotourism. The study focuses to five main places in Penang National Park which is the main office to national park, Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS, USM), Teluk Duyung known as Monkey Beach, Teluk Kampi and Pantai Kerachut. Pantai Keracut is known as place for turtle sanctuary where from September to February the beach is full with Olive-Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), while from April to August, visitors can see the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting ground. The SWOT analysis of policy and organization in PNP have been taken by using Naturalism Qualitative approach. SWOT analysis has shown that the Penang National Park are embodied with the Malaysia National Park Policy and 1980 Act. Based on the SWOT analysis the accessibility feature and the uniqueness of environment landscape of PNP are the strength whereas the inefficient of enforcement of rules and regulation policy management were found to be the weakness. Creating an environmental awareness through education program and collaboration with the NGOs services would help in promoting the PNP as an ecotourism destination were found to be the main opportunities. The loss of flora and fauna and the environment issue were found to be the main threat. Through the finding, TOWS analysis technique was deployed to identify the strategic policy and regulation options. It was conducted in manner that internal strength and external opportunities were maximized while the internal weaknesses and external threats on the PNP were minimized. Several strategic policy for PNP in ecotourism context have been identified which are enhance the enforcement of PNP rules and regulation planning for the visitor and set a sustainable guidelines for future development in national parks. In addition, strategic option has been identified to counter against the external threats and internal weakness such as insufficient of enforcement policy and encroachment and poachers of flora and fauna. Understanding this information will help

Copyright

© 2016, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nuradilah Abas
AU  - Yap Chai
AU  - Hafizhah Hairi
AU  - Ng How
AU  - Khor Jia
AU  - Sheilawanis Karim
AU  - Nor Munirah
AU  - Nurul Sahrum
AU  - Noor Syahida
AU  - Jason Wang
AU  - Nurul Iman
PY  - 2016/05
DA  - 2016/05
TI  - Tourism Policy and Organization:Case Study of Penang National Park
BT  - Proceedings of the Asia Tourism Forum 2016 - the 12th Biennial Conference of Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Asia
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 36
EP  - 51
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/atf-16.2016.6
DO  - 10.2991/atf-16.2016.6
ID  - Abas2016/05
ER  -