Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism in Malaysia: Assessing the Community Perspectives

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Climate change is a critical issue today which significantly affected the ecosystem of the community. The government of Malaysia has constructed and implemented numerous policy and plan in order to curb the climate change but it is sad to see that this country is still at the moderate phase of overcoming the issue. Climate change consequences on tourism are crucial because it increases the danger of species extinction, decreases freshwater, increases wildfire accidents, heat waves, and illnesses, all of which cause visitors to avoid certain places. Being aware of climate change consequently help the communities to prepare for its effects. As a result, the community is also becoming more educated and able to develop proactive and reactive measures to combat climate change and reducing their social vulnerability. Hence, this study surveyed the impacts of climate change on tourism in Malaysia by assessing the perspectives of the community. The researcher had distributed questionnaire survey to 400 respondents representing the communities in various destinations in Malaysia which are directly and indirectly affected by climate change. The findings indicated that three domains derived and were named as socio-economic impacts, physical impacts and environmental impacts. This study significantly provides the tourism stakeholders in Malaysia to understand in-depth the perceptions of the community towards the impacts of climate change on tourism and taking further actions to overcome the issues.