Turtle in Malaysian Borneo. Pic: LKEM (Flickr CC)
Multi-ethnic, rich in culture and biodiversity, Malaysia is both a place you want to visit and don’t want to spoil by being an “ugly tourist”.
By “spoil” I mean contribute to overdevelopment, thereby watering down the traditional culture or even destroying the nature that brought you here in the first place. “Ugly” tourism fails to respect the local culture or environment and rather draws people solely for its weather, waves and lightness on the wallet.
Ethical travel, on the other hand, does the reverse. The ethical tourist wants to give something back – and I don’t mean empty beer bottles or even some duty free shopping. The idea of ethical tourism is not only to minimise the tourist’s negative impact on the destination, but to try to make things better. An ethical holiday in Malaysia can take the form of volunteer vacations (volun-tourism), eco-tourism and sustainable travel. These categories can be distinct, but can also overlap considerably.
Read about Malaysia’s options for ethical travel in the following article for Asian Correspondent:
Ethical travel destination: Malaysia
This article was part of a publication for Tourism Malaysia. If you enjoyed this article and would like to find out more about travelling to Malaysia, please visit the Tourism Malaysia website.