Tourism: its environmental impact in Malaysia

Abstract

International tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. It has grown eight-fold in the past two decades and today it forms the largest single item in world trade. In 1973, 200 million inter- national tourists spent some £10,000 million, equivalent to about seven cent of the total value of world trade that year.¹ By 1978 the figure had increased to US$30 billion or more and is expected to grow by 10 per cent per annum. Three hundred and twenty five million tourist arrivals all over the world were forecasted for 1980, and most Third World countries are also fighting hard to get their share of the tourist market.2 According to ESCAP's 1982 annual report, tourist arrivals in Asian developing countries by 1981 averaged 16.2 million annually. This accounted for 5.5 per cent of the world total. Revenues from tourism amounted to US$7.4 billion which was 6.9 per cent share of total world tourist expenditures.3 This year alone, the Asean countries are expected to spend US$22 million on promoting tourism.