6. Empowering Sabah youth to promote culture and tourism.

Points of opposition:

Empowering Sabah youth to HINDER culture and tourism.

o safety and security issues

o lack of trained human resource
o poor promotional activity

Introduction

Cultural tourism which began in the late 1970s is today gaining grown in the tourism sector.
Today, many people travel not only for leisure and pleasure but gain a deeper understanding
of the culture of their various destinations. Our different ways of life and cultural backgrounds
have been seen to motivate the minds of many people to seek out novelty and experience
new things. Tourism, which is not that old an industry and which dates back to the 17th
century, has seen a transformation in recent years in various branches, and in constant
transformation when adapting to the needs of the audience and those of the tourists. With no
concise and agreeable definition on tourism, scholars in the 1990‟s approached tourism in
terms of demand and supply. Cultural tourism has become a major “new” area for tourism
demand, with almost all policy-makers being aware of the anxious need for development.
Cultural tourism is today a pillar because it serves as a strategy for growth for many
countries and the local people used this as a means to boost their local culture. (Richard,
1996).

Safety and security issues

Batra (2008) reviewed the Manual on Assistance to Tourists by Bruinink and Slump (1997)
found that the main impact on the foreign tourists' general feeling was their psychosocial
effects. He found that when the tourist experienced crimes during their holidays in different
locations, he or shemay encounter 4 types of psychosocial effects namely a feeling of
helplessness, a feeling of being unsafe, vulnerability and loss of control and damage to his or
her trust in others. In the context of tourism, studies pertaining to the safety and security of
tourists have gain attention of many scholars with different setting (Barker & Page, 2002;
Batra, 2008; Boakye, 2012; George, 2002; Page & Hall, 2002; Pearce, 1988; Ryan, 1993).
Pearce (1988) identified that an element of personal security is the main important factor for
tourist to make choices for travelling to different locations and has been influencing their
travel behaviour. If the tourist encounters any crime during their staymost likely theywill have
bad impression towards that specific tourist destination. Study about tourist's perception
towards safety and security in tourist destination has been carried out by George in 2002 in
Cape Town, South Africa, and he revealed that respondents has positive perceptions of
safety and security while staying in Cape Town. However, study also confirmed that
respondents felt unsafe going out after dark and using the city's public transport. Thus, safety
and security in tourist destination are difficult to manage properly unless serious proactive
measures are taken.

Lack of trained human resource

It is argued that tourism planning should be about planning for residents as well as for
visitors. If tourism is to be a positive force in the lives of local residents, it is contingent upon
local response, involvement and support. Many tourism plans for developing area
destinations give inadequate attention to human resources development. Furthermore, many
tourism plans espouse forms of tourism that do not fit well with existing human resources
capabilities so that local people find it difficult to participate in tourism and, in consequence,
benefit less than might otherwise be the case. Human resources development often focuses
on the employment needs of large international companies, especially in hospitality, to the
neglect of the employment requirements and opportunities in tourism more broadly
conceived. It was mentioned that they are currently facing unskilled tourist guide to promote
the culture to tourists. Tourist guide position is vital in any tourism activities because they
are the one who can clearly describe and share knowledge about the tourism products
offered. However, majority of the local youths have very weak basic education attainment
and some were even dropped out.

Poor promotional activity

Sabah has faced some difficulties which need to be taken into consideration in order to have
a good cultural sector. The lack of awareness is a big problem that needs to be solved in
order to promote the culture in Sabah. Most tourists visiting Sabah are unaware of the
cultural riches of the country. Moreover, they do not even have a clear idea of what cultural
tourism is about the tourists that visit Sabah think that the lack of awareness is the issue that
needs to be resolved when talking about cultural tourism in this part of the world. In addition
to that, another problem affecting cultural tourism in Sabah is the lack of promotion. When
talking of tourism and cultural tourism in particular, promotion should be taken into
consideration because it plays a vital role in tourism. Without promotional activities, cultural
tourism cannot be successfully developed.