Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is a popular tourist location; thus, the presence of too many tourists may leave a long-term negative impact on its ecology and sustainability. In determining the Carrying Capacity, a few factors were taken into account, such as the briefing effectiveness and tourists behavio...

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Main Author:	Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English English
Published:	2022
Subjects:	G154.9-155.8 Travel and state Tourism
Online Access:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
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id	my-ums-ep.41212
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spelling	my-ums-ep.412122024-10-16T05:34:04Z Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 2022 Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin G154.9-155.8 Travel and state. Tourism Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is a popular tourist location; thus, the presence of too many tourists may leave a long-term negative impact on its ecology and sustainability. In determining the Carrying Capacity, a few factors were taken into account, such as the briefing effectiveness and tourists behaviour (Chapter 3), tourists knowledge and support (Chapter 4), changes of coral cover through Movement Control Order (Chapter 5), management capacity, socio-physical and climate limiting factors (Chapter 6). Briefing scores was found to be only focused on marketing to gain more revenue from the tourists. The lack of responsibility among tourist guides was later proof by tourists behaviour in term of Coral Contact Rate with 1.76 contacts per 10 minutes of snorkelling time, where 72.29% of the contacts were intentional. T-test results showed that the reef of Mamutik island experienced a significantly higher Coral Contact Rate (p<0.05) than Manukan as Mamutik has a shallower reef area, restricting movements of snorkelers. Results also proved that Coral Contact Rate was significantly higher (p<0.05) during stronger currents than weak currents. Kruskal-Wallis test shows that tourists knowledge and support of Marine Protected Area overall were highly dependent (p<0.05) on education level. Very low knowledge was observed in Marine Protected Area knowledge, with only 37% of respondents and only 29% knows that Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is a Marine Protected Area. Most tourists were well-aware that corals, turtles and sharks are endangered species. However, in concern of corals, very few respondents (26%) know that it is an animal and can be leached by sunscreen (35%). Despite the low knowledge, tourists show slight support of the Marine Protected Area, where the Likert-scale of 5 questions resulted in a mean score of 2.36 ± 0.99. A notable higher disagreement was observed on the restriction of snorkelling activity during low tide due to the lack of knowledge on Coral Contact Rate's effect in the shallow reef area. In July 2020 (4 months after the Movement Control Order), the final coral cover survey proved the benefit of the Resting Period, where an increase of 3.16% was compensated from the 96% of revenue drop. Applying the Rotation Resting Period concept will grant the opportunity for Tunku Abdul Rahman Park to still collect revenue while keeping the coral ecosystem healthy. With all the essential data collected, the Carrying Capacity formulas of Land-based and Ocean-based were calculated for each island. Since the tourist's arrival shows fluctuation throughout the year, this study considered three tourism seasons; Regular Season, High Season and Festive Season. Manukan island, which offers the largest Land and Ocean-based area, recorded the highest number of Carrying Capacity with 1,464 and 822 tourists, respectively. The Land- based Carrying Capacity of Mamutik (990) and Sapi (997) are almost similar in number as their size is nearly the same. However, the Ocean-based Carrying Capacity of Sapi (458) is lower than Mamutik (587) as Sapi island has the highest limitation in terms of fragile coral cover. Finally, a series of recommendations based on the result of the study were listed to improve Tunku Abdul Rahman Park's management in preserving and conserving the ecosystem of the islands. Further research and monitoring are needed, whether the new management's implementation based on the Carrying Capacity of this study helps the environment. 2022 Thesis https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/ https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/1/24%20PAGES.pdf text en public https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/2/FULLTEXT.pdf text en validuser dphil doctoral Universiti Malaysia Sabah Borneo Marine Research Institute
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
collection	UMS Institutional Repository
language	English English
topic	G154.9-155.8 Travel and state Tourism
spellingShingle	G154.9-155.8 Travel and state Tourism Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
description	Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is a popular tourist location; thus, the presence of too many tourists may leave a long-term negative impact on its ecology and sustainability. In determining the Carrying Capacity, a few factors were taken into account, such as the briefing effectiveness and tourists behaviour (Chapter 3), tourists knowledge and support (Chapter 4), changes of coral cover through Movement Control Order (Chapter 5), management capacity, socio-physical and climate limiting factors (Chapter 6). Briefing scores was found to be only focused on marketing to gain more revenue from the tourists. The lack of responsibility among tourist guides was later proof by tourists behaviour in term of Coral Contact Rate with 1.76 contacts per 10 minutes of snorkelling time, where 72.29% of the contacts were intentional. T-test results showed that the reef of Mamutik island experienced a significantly higher Coral Contact Rate (p<0.05) than Manukan as Mamutik has a shallower reef area, restricting movements of snorkelers. Results also proved that Coral Contact Rate was significantly higher (p<0.05) during stronger currents than weak currents. Kruskal-Wallis test shows that tourists knowledge and support of Marine Protected Area overall were highly dependent (p<0.05) on education level. Very low knowledge was observed in Marine Protected Area knowledge, with only 37% of respondents and only 29% knows that Tunku Abdul Rahman Park is a Marine Protected Area. Most tourists were well-aware that corals, turtles and sharks are endangered species. However, in concern of corals, very few respondents (26%) know that it is an animal and can be leached by sunscreen (35%). Despite the low knowledge, tourists show slight support of the Marine Protected Area, where the Likert-scale of 5 questions resulted in a mean score of 2.36 ± 0.99. A notable higher disagreement was observed on the restriction of snorkelling activity during low tide due to the lack of knowledge on Coral Contact Rate's effect in the shallow reef area. In July 2020 (4 months after the Movement Control Order), the final coral cover survey proved the benefit of the Resting Period, where an increase of 3.16% was compensated from the 96% of revenue drop. Applying the Rotation Resting Period concept will grant the opportunity for Tunku Abdul Rahman Park to still collect revenue while keeping the coral ecosystem healthy. With all the essential data collected, the Carrying Capacity formulas of Land-based and Ocean-based were calculated for each island. Since the tourist's arrival shows fluctuation throughout the year, this study considered three tourism seasons; Regular Season, High Season and Festive Season. Manukan island, which offers the largest Land and Ocean-based area, recorded the highest number of Carrying Capacity with 1,464 and 822 tourists, respectively. The Land- based Carrying Capacity of Mamutik (990) and Sapi (997) are almost similar in number as their size is nearly the same. However, the Ocean-based Carrying Capacity of Sapi (458) is lower than Mamutik (587) as Sapi island has the highest limitation in terms of fragile coral cover. Finally, a series of recommendations based on the result of the study were listed to improve Tunku Abdul Rahman Park's management in preserving and conserving the ecosystem of the islands. Further research and monitoring are needed, whether the new management's implementation based on the Carrying Capacity of this study helps the environment.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin
author_facet	Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin
author_sort	Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin
title	Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
title_short	Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
title_full	Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
title_fullStr	Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
title_full_unstemmed	Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
title_sort	tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: a case study of tunku abdul rahman park, kota kinabalu, sabah
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
granting_department	Borneo Marine Research Institute
publishDate	2022
url	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
_version_	1818611380513669120

Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

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