BADARUDDIN MOHAMED

Purpose – This study aims to examine the relationship between recreation specialization and diver’s underwater behavior in Perhentian Island.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a pilot survey on 50 divers in Perhentian
Island. In-depth interviews with several dive operators were also conducted to support the findings.
Findings – Specialized divers tend to recognize unacceptable behavior rather than less specialized divers. Skilled specialized divers tend not to touch the reefs and not to collect dead pieces of the corals compared to less skilled divers.
Practical implications – Specialization and skills of divers can be used as an input to study diver underwater behavior while simultaneously providing insights on coral preservation.
Originality/value – It is important to manage diver behavior as there are now several diving operators who offer unlimited diving packages catering to day and night diving from shore. Divers can minimize their impacts by practicing responsible diving behavior. Measures emanating from this study on diver underwater behavior may be implemented to encourage responsible scuba diving activity among divers and ensure longevity of the coral reefs.
Keywords- Scuba diving, Recreation specialization, Divers, Diving skills, Underwater behavior, Coral reefs, Conservation, Malaysia
Paper type- Research paper

Appropriate interpretations and quality of tourists’ experience in historical cities is crucial in ensuring revisit by historic tourists. This research explores the ability and readiness of rickshaw pullers as informal tourist interpreters in helping to enhance the quality of tourists’ experience in Malacca. This study intends to identify whether the nature of tourist guide
suit the characteristics of rickshaw pullers to become a good informal tourist interpreter. Data collection involved survey among 250 registered rickshaw pullers from four trishaw associations. This study has indicated the path traveled by the rickshaw pullers around Malacca. Result from the analysis has produced several maps such as trishaw trail and food trail
suggested by the respondents to the tourists. Based on the findings, most of the respondents suit the characteristic of tourist guide and ready to become an informal interpreter. Several suggestions have been made to improve their skills in becoming a good informal tourist interpreter which include attending self improvement courses and enhancing their
communication skills. Implication of this study will contribute to the development of tourism industry especially in heritage and food tourism while improving the quality of tourists’ experience in the historical cities.

SCUBA diving activity is an increasing popular recreational activity that provides economic benefits to the coastal communities. Various unique marine creatures and reefs attract divers from all over the world leading to growing concern about coral damage. It is important to manage diver behavior since there are many dive operators offer unlimited diving packages, day and night diving from shore. Divers can minimize their impacts by practicing responsible diving behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between recreation specialization and diver’s underwater behavior in Perhentian Island. Data were collected using pilot survey on 50 divers in Perhentian Island and in-depth interview with several dive operators to support the findings. High skills and specialized divers tend not to touch the reefs and collect the dead pieces of the corals than the less skill divers. The study on diver underwater behavior is essential to encourage responsible SCUBA diving activity among divers and longevity of the coral reefs.

The quality and quantity of lodging supply are critical factors in determining tourism success in any tourist destinations. In Malaysia, the development of tourist accommodations has been based on speculation due to lack of reliable data to support feasibility study and realistic trend analyses. One of the top destinations in Malaysia is highland areas as tourists can enjoy beautiful scenery view from the hill top with its cold breezy fresh air. Over the years, tourist arrivals to highland areas increased up near to 8 million tourists every year, forcing the potential stakeholders to invest and develop more lodgings, facilities and proper infrastructures to cater tourists’ needs. In achieving sustainability of tourism development, developers sometimes pay no heed to the planning guidelines as they are too eager about profit and investment of the development. Carrying capacity is one of the planning tools to measure sustainable development. Uncontrolled development has resulted an oversupply of lodging capacity; particularly hotels in highland areas will cause long term impacts towards physical environments and inevitable negative impacts on average occupancy rates. By referring to Genting Highland as a case study, this paper intends to discuss the critical issues arise due to the oversupply of lodging in highland area. Spatial and non-spatial data on lodging establishments were stored into integrated database of ESRI’s ArcView system which was further mapped as data layers in Geographic Information System (GIS). Outcomes of this study will show distributional maps of accommodations that existed since 1970s until present, which demonstrate the lodging evolution and development patterns in the study area. This study provides tourism stakeholders, hotel entrepreneurs, tourism operators and potential developers with insights into planning and developing new tourism accommodations based on the potential development sites as well as promotes a better integration of spatial planning of tourism development in highland areas.

Appropriate interpretations and quality of tourists’ experience in historical cities are crucial in ensuring revisit by
tourists. This research discovers the ability and readiness of rickshaw pullers as informal tourist interpreters in
helping to enhance the quality of tourists’ experience in the Heritage City of Melaka. This study intends to
identify whether rickshaw pullers have the characteristics of tourist guide with good informal tourist interpreter.
Data collection involved survey among 250 registered rickshaw pullers from four trishaw associations. This study
has indicated the path travelled by the rickshaw pullers around the city. Result of the analysis has produced
several maps such as trishaw trail and food trail suggested by the respondents to the tourists. Based on the
findings, most of the rickshaw pullers suit the characteristic of tourist guides and are ready to become an
informal interpreter. Several suggestions have been made to improve their skills in becoming a good informal
tourist interpreter that include attending self-improvement courses and enhancing their communication skills.
Implication of this study will contribute to the development of tourism industry especially in heritage and food
tourism while improving the quality of travel experiences in the historical cities.