The Possibility of Tawau Hills Park in Develop as an Ecotourism site

Abstract

Malaysia is well known for its ecotourism since tourism is directed towards exotic natural environments and the local government intended to support conservation efforts and wildlife conservation. Ecotourism is of great importance to the growth of tourism in Malaysia and its action to balance the world's human and climate once upon a time, Tawau Hills Park had extremely rich wildlife. There are a lot of extinct wild animal species in this forest in the last century. There are gibbons, sambar deer, elephants on the foothills, and orangutans on the trees. Yet, due to inadequate construction plans, unfortunately, the forest around the hill is being cut down. The goal of this research is to identify potential indicators in the development of Tawau Hills Park as an ecotourism destination, to determine the suitability of the activities in Tawau Hills Park, and to determine the level of public acceptance for the development of the Tawau Hills Park as an ecotourism site. The approach used for this study is a qualitative method and the result showed that all objectives were answerable. Twelve respondents display a positive response to the question. Fifteen general indicators have been found in this research. The indicators of this research could help Tawau Hills Park in manage and plan for marketing strategies. Meanwhile, the limitation of this research is difficult to transport, short time to gather data, and uncomfortable to get the respondents.