Singing the song of tourism for good

Tasik Cermin, Ipoh, Perak 

One of our greatest passions is advocating for sustainable tourism or tourism that supports sustainable development. When our family first built and opened Batu Batu in 2012, we aimed at creating a resort which allowed quiet enjoyment of the amazing Pulau Tengah whilst treading lightly. A few years down the line we began to understand the power which tourism (or business more generally) holds in regenerating - whether that be conserving the marine environment or providing jobs and consciously spending within the local economy.

With this in mind, we have been busy this year moving beyond Mersing and attending workshops, meetings, speaking across the country in our hope to contribute to the growth and understanding of sustainable (or dare we say even, regenerative) tourism at home in Malaysia. As I write this article, I realise how far we have moved, and how much more traction there is today for tourism that supports sustainable development in our country. Long may this continue.

What on earth is a doughnut?

My colleague and Batu Batu’s Chief of Staff Shin Yee and I started our rounds in February with a visit to beautiful Ipoh (a nostalgic location for me as Ipoh is my mother’s home town). We were invited as representatives of the Sustainable Tourism Network Malaysia to run a mentoring workshop for mixed government agencies, academia and private tourism operators on sustainable tourism in the context of Ipoh’s Town Council’s initiative to be Malaysia’s first Donut Economy City in Asia. For those of you interested, you can read a very brief explanation of “What on Earth is the Doughnut?” by Kate Raworth, economist at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.

Collaborating for sustainable development

We also attended the inaugural UNDP Malaysia Sustainable Tourism Committee meet at UNDP’s Headquarters in Putrajaya, took part in the UN Tourism INSTO Workshop (International Network for Sustainable Tourism Observatories - where Mersing is being put forward as Malaysia’s first observatory), spent three days with the Tourism Productivity Nexus’s working group to write a Malaysia Roadmap for Sustainable Tourism, spoke at the Asia Sustainable Tourism Forum on water circularity and interviewed on the challenges and possible solutions to island waste management with Melisa Idris on Astro Awani’s current affairs programme “Consider This” (the interview recording can be found here).