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

Nasrulhakim Hj. Maidin (2022) Tourism carrying capacity in marine protected area: A case study of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Doctoral thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Keyword:	Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Tourism, Ecology, Tourists behaviour
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General). Atlases. Maps > G1-922 Geography (General) > G149-180 Travel. Voyages and travels (General) > G154.9-155.8 Travel and state. Tourism
Department:	INSTITUTE > Borneo Marine Research Institute
Depositing User:	DG MASNIAH AHMAD -
Date Deposited:	16 Oct 2024 13:34
Last Modified:	16 Oct 2024 13:34
URI:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/41212

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