Ecotourism, Sustainable Tourism The Future Of Region Tourism Industry

JOHOR BAHRU, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- The 46th Meeting of the Asean+3 National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) has identified ecotourism and sustainable tourism as among the initiatives capable of contributing to the growth of the tourism industry in this region.

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture secretary-general Datuk Roslan Abdul Rahman said that one of the ecotourism products being intensified is the homestay programme that was pioneered by Malaysia.

"Malaysia has organised the homestay programme for quite a long time and we now have a very systematic homestay right now.

"We have a homestay association and the good thing is that the homestay is community-based. Everyone can share in it (the homestay programme). For example, an entire village can share and form a cooperative, so we encourage this,” he said after officiating the meeting here today.

He said that besides ecotourism, the meeting also agreed that sustainable tourism needed to be focused on for the continuity of the tourism industry.

"The same with the preservation and conservation of existing tourism areas as well as with the flora and fauna,” he said.

He added that one of Malaysia's efforts to encourage sustainable tourism is by highlighting the Sun Bear as the mascot for the Visit Malaysia Year 2026 campaign.

"We want to conserve the Sun Bear so that it does not become extinct and introduce it to Malaysians,” he said.

The meeting, which began at about 9 am today and participated by Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, South Korea and Japan, is part of the highlights of the ongoing ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) programme in Johor.

This is the second time that Malaysia is hosting the ATF, having first hosted it in Kuching, Sarawak in 2014.

Malaysia’s hosting of ATF 2025 is particularly significant as it assumes the ASEAN chairmanship this year.

-- BERNAMA