Assessment of invertebrates as ecotourism product for Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah
This study was conducted in Tabin Wildlife Reserve (TWR), Lahad Datu, Sabah with a general objective to urge effective ways to increase invertebrate's conservation effort through ecotourism activity. Specifically, three objectives were pOSited in this study, namely, to determine the response...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/19485/1/Assessment%20of%20invertebrates%20as%20ecotourism.pdf |
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| Summary: | This study was conducted in Tabin Wildlife Reserve (TWR), Lahad Datu, Sabah with
a general objective to urge effective ways to increase invertebrate's conservation
effort through ecotourism activity. Specifically, three objectives were pOSited in this
study, namely, to determine the response of tourist to the concept of including
such invertebrates information in current ecotourism activities, to obtain an
overview of the current levels of the inclusion of invertebrates information in
certain types of ecotourism activities and to provide recommendations on how to
address the lack of invertebrate information in ecotourism. Therefore, mixed
methods approaches were applied which comprised Participation and Observation
of TWR guided walk, Invertebrate's Record and Preliminary Entotourism Course and
Survey. Alternately, a conceptual framework was proposed in this study which
comprised five variables overall (Activity, Information, Willingness, Interest and
Ecotourism). SPSS and AMOS analysis utilising Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
were used for quantitative data analysis, while Leximancer was used to analyse the
qualitative data. SEM analysis of the questionnaire survey divulged that 65%
variance of Ecotourism was well expounded by all four exogenous variables.
Meanwhile, Leximancer analysis revealed six dominant themes which representing
the perceptions of tourists to the inclusion of invertebrate in the ecotourism
activities, in turn, this Leximancer finding used to support and strengthen the SEM
findings. Consequently, the findings of this study are important to contribute to the
literature of species conservation awareness in Sabah in which there are only few
researches conducted specifically on the entotourism field. It would also contribute
to the management and policy making of Sabah's tourism master plan in terms of
introducing a new tourism product for Sabah as well as enhance the sustainability
of ecotourism operators and encourage the competitiveness in the tourism industry.
Lastly, these research findings are able to broaden the scope of ecotourism
activities that would help to minimize the negative impacts of tourism that stressing
more on the already endangered species. |
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