CBT Symposium 2022

Background

CBTS 2022 with the theme “Rural Tourism Prosperity: Transforming the Well-Being of Local Communities”  builds on the shared prosperity vision within Halatuju Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ Development Plan 1.0: 2021-2025). Tourism is one of the three focus areas in SMJ encompassing Agriculture, Industrial, Tourism sectors; Human Capital & Well-Being of the People; Infrastructure Networks & Green Sustainability).

Sabah aims to be a world-class rural tourism destination by 2030. Community-based Tourism (CBT) operators in Sabah have been encouraged to boost their rural products to draw in high-end tourists. Sabah Tourism Board and the Federation of Rural Tourism Association (FeRTAS) in collaboration with Borneo Tourism Research Centre (BTRC) aim to assist local communities in enhancing the CBT model.

CBTS 2022 will be held for one day on 2nd December 2022 . It will be jointly organised by BTRC, a research centre at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah with Sabah Tourism Board. The symposium is also supported by FeRTAS and  ATLAS Asia, part of the ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research) network. ATLAS Asia is based at Sun Yat-sen University, China.

Objectives

CBT is a model of rural tourism development which has shown promise and has potential for further prosperity. In Sabah, this is in line with the Sabah Maju Jaya development plan. Therefore, the objectives include:

1. to understand the role of CBT in transforming the prosperity of destination communities [Issues]

2. to review major CBT challenges and highlight success stories.

3. to propose strategies to deal with issues and challenges [way forward]

The Symposium hosts one keynote address and two panels sessions with 8 panelists (Details below).

Registration fee is RM60 on-site and Free for Online participants.