Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia

Ecotourism concept which refers to tourism activities in natural, undisturbed ecosystem often misfits with urban environment, however not impossible. Although Sabah is well known for its ecotourism market, the urban ecotourism concept in Kota Kinabalu city has never been explored. Kota Kinabalu is a...

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Main Author:	Nattana Simon
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	G149-180 Travel Voyages and travels (General)
Online Access:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
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id	my-ums-ep.41194
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-ums-ep.411942024-10-14T02:35:54Z Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia 2020 Nattana Simon G149-180 Travel. Voyages and travels (General) Ecotourism concept which refers to tourism activities in natural, undisturbed ecosystem often misfits with urban environment, however not impossible. Although Sabah is well known for its ecotourism market, the urban ecotourism concept in Kota Kinabalu city has never been explored. Kota Kinabalu is an entry point to other ecotourism destinations in Sabah and is strategically located in the South East Asia region, offers potential to the tourism industry. Current ecotourism destinations in Sabah faced carrying capacity issues thus need to explore new destinations. This paper analyzed local Kota Kinabalu resident and tourist’ perception and value pertaining to the potential of Kota Kinabalu city as an urban ecotourism destination and how preservation of green spaces in cities supports sustainability. Their perception on the attractiveness of the ecosystem, conservation values and destination access were intercepted in this study. Kota Kinabalu city is found to have unique and world class natural attraction, suitable as ecotourism product. Tourist’ motivation and satisfaction towards Kota Kinabalu city were also gauged, adopting the Importance-Performance Analysis method. Findings showed that Kota Kinabalu is highly potential as an urban ecotourism destination, and study results could assist decision makers in the local tourism industry in making tourism development decisions. This study identified potential urban green spaces within 10km radius from the city centre as ecotourism destination based on the standard minimum size of an urban green space. The findings demonstrate the need to positively exploit various perceived importance and values from stakeholders, coupled with the existing environmental features to pursue urban ecotourism and how ecotourism within Kota Kinabalu city could be an effective approach to enhance or preserve natural green areas. This study resulted in some findings that assists decision making in developing tourism in the state of Sabah. 2020 Thesis https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/ https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/1/24%20PAGES.pdf text en public https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/2/FULLTEXT.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sabah Institute For Tropical Biology And Conservation
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
collection	UMS Institutional Repository
language	English English
topic	G149-180 Travel Voyages and travels (General)
spellingShingle	G149-180 Travel Voyages and travels (General) Nattana Simon Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
description	Ecotourism concept which refers to tourism activities in natural, undisturbed ecosystem often misfits with urban environment, however not impossible. Although Sabah is well known for its ecotourism market, the urban ecotourism concept in Kota Kinabalu city has never been explored. Kota Kinabalu is an entry point to other ecotourism destinations in Sabah and is strategically located in the South East Asia region, offers potential to the tourism industry. Current ecotourism destinations in Sabah faced carrying capacity issues thus need to explore new destinations. This paper analyzed local Kota Kinabalu resident and tourist’ perception and value pertaining to the potential of Kota Kinabalu city as an urban ecotourism destination and how preservation of green spaces in cities supports sustainability. Their perception on the attractiveness of the ecosystem, conservation values and destination access were intercepted in this study. Kota Kinabalu city is found to have unique and world class natural attraction, suitable as ecotourism product. Tourist’ motivation and satisfaction towards Kota Kinabalu city were also gauged, adopting the Importance-Performance Analysis method. Findings showed that Kota Kinabalu is highly potential as an urban ecotourism destination, and study results could assist decision makers in the local tourism industry in making tourism development decisions. This study identified potential urban green spaces within 10km radius from the city centre as ecotourism destination based on the standard minimum size of an urban green space. The findings demonstrate the need to positively exploit various perceived importance and values from stakeholders, coupled with the existing environmental features to pursue urban ecotourism and how ecotourism within Kota Kinabalu city could be an effective approach to enhance or preserve natural green areas. This study resulted in some findings that assists decision making in developing tourism in the state of Sabah.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Nattana Simon
author_facet	Nattana Simon
author_sort	Nattana Simon
title	Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
title_short	Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
title_full	Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
title_fullStr	Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia
title_sort	urban ecotourism destination: exploring the potential of kota kinabalu city, sabah, malaysia
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
granting_department	Institute For Tropical Biology And Conservation
publishDate	2020
url	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41194/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
_version_	1818611377591287808

Urban ecotourism destination: Exploring the potential of Kota Kinabalu City, Sabah, Malaysia

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