Rural Tourism: Capacity Building for Community and Local Tourism Leaders
MEA has presented a template to weave tourism into a rural economy based on the key elements of rural tourism. The project outlines a decision-making model and an operational strategy based on MEA’s expert members’ experiences over the past twenty years developing experiential tourism products, managing tourism enterprises, and researching tourism development.
MEA is pleased to bring its expertise and hands-on teaching style to rural communities in Malaysia. MEA’s primary role is to provide sustainable institutional support, develop community leadership and undertake developmental research.
MEA aims to promote strategies for rural revitalization through capacity building workshops and seminars with local administrative institutions, villages and towns and at the same time maintaining multilateral collaboration with similar ecotourism associations abroad particularly in areas of developing supply chains with targeted markets and developing suitable interpretative documents related to specific nationalities.
Four pilot sites of different identities have been identified:
• Pontian District, Johor (Pontian, Tg Piai, Kukup) – Wetland/Aqua-culture
• Jerantut District, Pahang – (Jerantut, Taman Negara) - Rainforest/Agriculture
• Kampar District, Perak – (Kampar, Gopeng) - Secondary Forest/Tin Mining
By working in, and with the community where the tourism experience will take place, the workshop leaders can facilitate a tourism product development process on the spot. By working directly in the target community, our workshop leaders can have a vital impact on a critical mass of people who will ultimately participate in delivering the tourism experience.
Through a series of custom designed capacity building workshops, the communities will be guided and taught in developing authentic tourism experiences, building brand awareness and generating strong visitor numbers by developing local tourism enterprises and delivering effective information services.
The capacity building program will teach the community to partake in key activities which are crucial to the success in developing a rural tourism destination. Community members are taught how to :
• Develop a plan or roadmap for the destination
• Design and implement skill development and training programs for the community
• Undertake basic accounting and financial planning for community projects funds
• Develop tourism destination and visitor experience management
• Prepare a destination sales and marketing plan
• Set up an information/reservations & tour centre
• Effective use of ICT and multimedia applications
It is MEA’S hope that the project will assist rural entrepreneurs, development agencies, small-scale farmers, and rural community members around the country in developing business strategies that bring economic prosperity to their communities and regions.
Strategic Objectives and Benefits Revitalization of Malaysia’s rural areas will :
• Attract sustainable industries including tourism enterprises that creates employment and improve community’s standard of living
• Create employment and positive socio-economic benefits for the community, revitalizing population growth and reducing rural-urban migration of human capital
• Generate economic return from wasted idle land and abundant natural resources found in rural areas
• Contribute to racial integration and interaction among rural folks for the betterment of community
