Abstract

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the integration of ecotourism and sustainable tourism development; applies that framework to southeast Asia through a case study from the State of Sarawak, Malaysia; and describes the role that holiday ownership can play.

Introduction

Would the goal of environmental preservation be better served if wildlife and wilderness were placed off-limits to holiday-makers? That's the view of Richard Leakey (1998), paleontologist and director of the National Museum of Kenya.  He believes that ecotourism has become a label prone to abuse, fostering incursions into "areas of enormous biological importance that cannot sustain utilization by large numbers of people." Such areas, he says, would be better off if holiday makers watched nature on TV instead of going to visit it.

We respectfully disagree.   In our view, preservation of ecologically sensitive areas and visitation of such areas by holiday-makers need not be mutually exclusive. Indeed, visitation in such areas can broaden awareness of their existence and unique characteristics,  and help to build  a constituency dedicated to their protection and preservation.

As French (1998) notes, "Ecotourism is [a] possible  vehicle  for  channeling  international investment  capital  into  the  preservation  of threatened ecosystems, if it is pursued in an ecologically sensitive ........ Since ecotourism is  not  generally  capital-intensive,  domestic investment may often be sufficient for underwriting much of the industry. But even ecotourism has its infrastructure: international investment may find a role in upgrading airports and building the kind of carefully conceived, small-scale, low-impact hotels that are consistent with the industry's conservation goals" (p.25).

To illustrate this proposition, we present below a case study from the State of Sarawak, Malaysia, where the state government has taken an active role in the development of tourism infrastructure, including properties with strong ecotouristic aspects.

The Sarawak experience also demonstrates that the form of hospitality accommodation known variously around the world as timesharing, interval ownership,  holiday  ownership,  and  vacation ownership constitutes a viable adjunct to the development of a sustainable tourism industry based on ecotourism.

Definitions

The concept of ecotourism arises from the science called ecology   (study   of  the interrelationships  among organisms  and their environment), a word based upon the Greek oikos (house) and logos (word). Because homo sapiens is an organism interacting with the environment like any other, ecology entails respect for indigenous human cultures as well as the preservation of natural biological communities. Ecotourism, then, ideally refers to visitation methods that minimize disruption of the host locale's distinctive attributes.

In defining sustainable tourism development, Moore (1996) begins with the World Tourism Organization's characterization - that to be sustainable, tourism development must meet the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. Then he goes on to define the concept more broadly, speaking in terms of "total integration with the community in which you are [located]."

Total integration involves consideration of health and safety aspects, conservation of natural resources, renewable energy supplies, and other environmental manifestations.  In addition, total integration involves maintaining the lifestyle and dignity of indigenous inhabitants by protecting the social fabric of the local community, assuring local economic opportunities,  and guarding against exploitation by the outside world (Leposky, 1997, p. 10).

Writing of sustainable development in general, Goldmark (1995) includes in his "characteristics of the new path" more effective accounting systems to calculate the costs and benefits of resource-utilization strategies, ready availability of family-planning and reproductive-health services, more emphasis on quality-of-life issues, and "concepts of equity more related to educational opportunity and less concerned with material goods" (p.6).

Simons and Leposky (1994) define a timeshare project as "a project in which a purchaser receives the right in perpetuity for life or for a term of years to the recurrent exclusive use or occupancy of a lot, parcel unit, or segment of real property annually or on some other periodic basis.  Such a timeshare project covers a specified period of time allotted from the use or occupancy periods into which the project has been divided" (p. 119).  In southeast Asia, most timeshare projects are structured on a right-to-use basis spanning a period of years, throughout which the developer remains in control of the property. For a project designed to foster ecotourism  and  sustainability, this ownership arrangement provides continuity in management of the resort to assure on-going adherence to the original objectives.

Purchasers of timeshares are not restricted to holiday-making at the resort where they own. Two global timeshare-exchange networks exist: Interval International, based in Miami, Florida; and Resort Condominiums International, based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The vast majority of timeshare resorts are affiliated with one or the other.

Holiday-owners at an ecotouristic resort may, on occasion, wish to exchange elsewhere for a different kind of holiday experience. In so doing, they create exchange inventory that can be used by people who own timeshares elsewhere and want to exchange into a resort offering an ecologically-oriented holiday. (Also, until the resort is sold out, vacant developer-owned inventory will be available for inward exchange.)

The Sarawak Experience

Rugged mountains shrouded in mist, massive cave  systems  still  largely  unexplored,  and spectacular waterfalls set in a verdant rainforest of incredible beauty and diversity attract visitors from all over the world to the interior of Borneo, the world's third-largest island.  To build a viable tourism industry around the natural attributes of this wild, remote region, the Sarawak state government in Malaysia has committed substantial resources through  its  development  arm,  the  Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC).

SEDC views tourism and leisure as a "strategic business unit" equal in stature to roads and works, food-based  industries,  agro-based  industries, mineral and mining building materials, human-resource  development  (i.e.,  education),  and Bumiputra (indigenous peoples) commercial and industrial community-development programs.

In the tourism and leisure sector, SEDC has invested over 550 million Malaysian ringgits equivalent to approximately US$154,275,000 at the March 27, 1998, New York foreign-exchange selling rate (Currency Trading, 1998) - to build five "international standard" hotels and other tourism properties, plus downtown shopping complexes in Sarawak's capital city, Kuching; the Damai Golf & Country Club; and the Sarawak Cultural Village (S.E.D.C. Sarawak, n.d., n.pag.).  The cultural village - a 17-acre (6.9-hectare) tourist attraction 22 miles (35 kilometers) from Kuching in the Damai Beach resort district - is a "living museum" that enables visitors to experience in half a day the authentic dwelling styles, arts, crafts, games, foods, music, and dance of seven of Sarawak's major resident cultures (Sarawak Cultural Village, n.d., n. pag.).

Two of the SEDC resorts, Bukit Saban and Royal Mulu, are located deep within Borneo's interior rainforest and serve as a comfortable base for ecotouristic adventures. Camp Permai, in the Damai Beach resort district, offers a more accessible ecotourism experience in a naturalistic setting.

Bukit Saban is a 50-unit resort built in 1995 on a 14-acre (5.7-hectare) site in the Paku district of Betong, 180 miles (290 kilometers) from Kuching. The buildings that house its accommodations resemble the apartment-style longhouses of the Iban tribe (Leposky, 1996b, p.40).

In the vicinity of the resort are actual Iban villages where the inhabitants welcome Bukit Saban Resort guests and timeshare owners and share such aspects of the indigenous culture as cockfighting matches, traditional dances, arts and crafts, and cuisine.  Bukit Saban Resort also offers guided bicycle, boat, and foot trips in the surrounding terrain.  Destinations include nearby cocoa, oil-palm, and pepper plantations, and a waterfall in the jungle reached by a trek through rugged terrain. Additionally, within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the resort, guests and timeshare owners may visit a government agricultural-research center devoted to the farming of freshwater fish and to cultivation of wild fruits, ferns, and durian and rubber trees (Leposky, 1996a, pp.44-45).

Royal Mulu Resort was built in 1992 on a 200-acre (81 -hectare) site along the Melinau River adjoining Gunung Mulu National Park, six to seven hours upriver by boat from the coast of the South China Sea. Malaysia Airlines transports most of the resort's supplies and visitors to a small local airport from Miri, the nearest city, on 45-minute flights aboard 19-seat Twin Otter aircraft.  The resort's accommodations consist of 149 units in longhouse-style structures resembling the architecture of a nearby  Penan  tribal  village,  connected  by boardwalks. The entire resort is built on stilts more than 30 feet (nine meters) above the ground, well above the high-water mark of the adjacent river's recurrent floods. A net-draped walk-through aviary on the resort grounds harbors a representative assortment of native birds, including the state bird of Sarawak, the hornbill (Leposky, I 996b, p.40).

The  vast  Gunung  Mulu  National  Park encompasses  210  square  miles  (544  square kilometers) of mountainous rainforest bisected by rivers and streams.  Recreational activities in the national park include scaling three major mountains, Mulu (7,796 feet/2,376  meters), Api  (5,611 feet/1,710 meters), and Benarat (5,200 feet (1,585 meters); climbing to a rain-sculpted rock formation called The Pinnacles on Mt. Api; canoeing and rafting on the Melinau River; and exploring the world's largest limestone cave system, in which more than 125 miles (200 kilometers) of passages have been surveyed and twice or thrice that length remain to be explored (Kumar, 1996, p.289; Reed, 1996, n. pag.).

Park officials have established four "show caves" - Clearwater, Wind, Deer, and Lang. Arrangements may be made at Royal Mulu Resort to visit them, accompanied by guides from the nearby Orang Ulu tribe.

Deer Cave is the world's largest known underground chamber, 394 feet (120 meters) high and 328 feet (100 meters) wide. Clearwater Cave is the longest cave passage in Asia and the seventh-longest known in the world, extending at least 66 miles (107 kilometers). Wind and Lang caves, though smaller, are renowned for the superlative quality of their rock formations.

Clearwater and Wind caves may be reached aboard motorized longboats traveling upriver from the resort, and all four caves also are accessible by means of boardwalks from the park headquarters. Besides easing the way of visitors over uneven terrain, these well-defined pathways help to protect the surrounding jungle. By the same token, well-lit concrete paths and stairways facilitate touristic visitation within these caves, while minimizing the impact of human presence upon the caves' rock formations and the various animal and plant species resident within (Leposky,  1996a, pp. 46-47; National Parks, n.d., n. pag.; Reed, 1996, n. pag.).

For adventure cavers who seek to explore beyond the beaten path, application for permission may be made in advance to the national park. With the assistance of park officials, Reed (1996) has compiled a list of at least 18 separate routes through the cave system, ranging in length from 2,900 feet (885 meters) to 15.5 miles (25 kilometers). Many of these expeditions require knowledge of technical rope work for abseiling and climbing.

Camp Permai consists of 29 cabins and 10 treehouses on a 44-acre (17.8-hectare) site on a forested slope beside the South China Sea.  The camp includes an outdoor-activity center where skilled instructors teach survival skills, including the use of ropes as an aid to movement, and knowledge of edible jungle fruits and plants.  Conferencing facilities are available. For families, students, and corporate groups, the camp offers programs designed to build individual self-confidence and interpersonal interaction skills (Camp Permai, n.d., n. pag.).

The Role of Holiday Ownership

In 1995, SEDC allocated 30 percent of its hotel and resort industry to timesharing, and established a subsidiary, Asia Vacations Club Sdn. Bhd., doing business as Club Asia International, to sell timeshare packages. Sales began in 1996, and today Club Asia International has close to 500 members - a respectable showing in view of the fact that most Sarawakians have never before been exposed to the timeshare concept.

After some administrative difficulties that led to a reorganization and a five-month hiatus in active
sales, Club Asia International relaunched its sales effort in February of 1998. A sales force numbering about 30 now operates from a sales center in the Sarawak Shopping Mall in downtown Kuching. Plans are underway to open another office in Kuala Lumpur in the latter half of 1998.

The Club Asia program is based upon the sale of points, which club members can use in a variety of ways during the 25-year term  of their membership. Possibilities include accommodations at six SEDC-owned hotels and resorts in Sarawak, including Bukit Saban and Royal Mulu resorts and Camp Permai; amenities, recreational activities, sightseeing adventures, and travel; and exchange opportunities through the worldwide auspices of Interval International's exchange network, known in North America as the Quality Vacation Exchange Network and in Europe and Asia as the Quality Holiday Exchange Network (Club Asia, n.d., n. pag.; Leposky, 1996b, p.38).

The Interval International exchange network encompasses nearly 1,600 resorts in more than 80 countries around the world, at which some 860,000 consumer members  own  timeshares  (Interval International Fact Sheet, 1998, p.1). To use their exchange privileges with Interval, Club Asia members may submit enough points to Club Asia to secure a week's accommodations at one of its properties, then relinquish those accommodations to the Interval network and select accommodations of comparable value and quality from Interval's inventory.

In turn, the Club Asia weeks in the Interval network become available for use by Interval members who own elsewhere and have relinquished their home-resort accommodations in return for an exchange.

Conclusion

We have demonstrated above the value of ecotourism as a focal point for sustainable tourism development, using as an illustration the experience of the State of Sarawak, Malaysia; and we have shown the role that holiday ownership plays in that experience.

Holiday ownership adds value to a sustainable ecotouristic enterprise in two ways. First, it creates a reservoir of owner-members who have made a commitment to the project.  By virtue of that commitment, they are likely to return with greater frequency than the average transient guest. This is one reason why timeshare resorts and mixed-use (hotel and holiday ownership) properties tend to have higher occupancy than most hotels without a holiday-ownership component.  Moreover, when holiday owners exchange away from their home resort, they create exchange-network inventory that someone else is likely to use to exchange in, thus maintaining the home resort's occupancy rate - and the level of revenues generated by food-and-beverage outlets, guide services, boat and bicycle rental, and other fee-based amenities and activities.

Timeshare exchange also has the potential to attract timeshare visitors from all parts of the world to ecotouristic resorts. The comparability aspect of the exchange process makes it especially attractive to travelers from distant locations.  They can be assured that, no matter how wild and remote the destination, the accommodations awaiting them will meet the same standards of comfort and overall quality they selected at the home resort where they purchased their own timeshare.
 

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