Environmental Settings of Three Recreation Forests and Their Effects on Visitors' Perception

The Recreation Forests of Malaysia are mostly frequented by the middle income residents. It was shown that there are numerous visitors to these sites especially during the weekends. The study looks at the effects of recreational settings, which are the natural resources conditions and the crowding conditions on visits' satisfaction. The excessive use was found to have affected the natural resources and the crowding levels were found to be very high. However, the study found that visitors are still highly satisfied with the recreation experience. Visitors' perceptions of the environmental conditions were assessed for three Recreation Forests namely Sungai Chongkak, Lentang and Sungai Tua which are popular among the population of the Klang Valley. Visitors' preferences and awareness were compared to actual conditions of the Recreation Forests. Findings on awareness, shows that visitors are more aware of the plant component resource more than the other parameters. By groups, it was found that age seems to be a factor in perceiving environmental conditions, where the older people tend to be more aware of the situation. Visitors' environmental preferences are more towards general conditions in term of cleanliness from rubbish and the availability of recreation facilities. They are less affected by crowd as indicated by what they consider as "pollutants" of the Recreation Forests. It was found that visitors object more to hearing noise from other visitors than seeing the crowd. On placing importance, measured in terms of money and walking distance, visitors would rather spend more for cleanliness than for solitude. They are willing to pay up to RM 1 for cleanliness, which was encouraging as the mode. However, nothing at all is willing to be spent for solitude. More visitors are willing to walk for cleanliness (500 m) but not at all for solitude conditions. This again emphasised the lack of importance of solitude, or the lack of aversion to crowd by Recreation Forests' visitors. In fact, when asked what is their crowd tolerance limit, most visitors answered "Do not care". Another finding from this study, is that campers which include visitors of challenging activities are quite different in their perceptions and preferences of environmental conditions. The limit of crowd tolerance is less, and this group made up the most willing to pay up to RM10 and walk up to 1 km. In conclusion, it was found that the recreational settings do indicate excessive use of the area. The natural ecology of the areas is significantly affected, and crowding is intense. It was found that, visitors noticed the conditions of crowding more than the natural resources'. Nevertheless, the majority of visitors are still very satisfied of the recreation experience in the Recreation Forests

Performance Management in Tax Administration: A Holistic Model for Malaysian Tax Authorities

This paper has developed a holistic model for performance management in tax administration. To achieve this aim, the literature on performance management practice as well as performance management models were reviewed and analysed. Tax administration cannot perform efficiently and effectively without understanding performance management elements which include performance and governance evaluations. The performance management elements should also involve both internal and external stakeholders. The model in this paper is aimed at improving performance management in tax administration for Malaysian tax authorities

Communicating Organizational Strategy to Employees Using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC): Case Study of a Malaysian Company

Communicating organizational strategy to employees has been identified as one of the factors that influence success of strategy implementation in an organization. This study presents a case study of the use of BSC as a strategy communication tool in the strategy implementation process of a large Malaysian service provider. Specifically, the study explores how the BSC was used to facilitate strategy communication from the top to the lower management team, the factors affecting its effectiveness and its implication. Data was collected using interviews with 30 managers from various management levels and observations in eighteen meetings and BSC training sessions. Findings of this study show that, if applied properly, the strategy map and scorecard improve strategy communication among the different management levels. It was also found that among the factors that may influence the effectiveness of it usage are the content of the maps and scorecard and the channel of communication used to convey the information. In addition, this paper provides evidence of the application of BSC as a communication tools

Development of Malaysian Homestay Tourism : A Review

Malaysian homestay tourism is a type of community-based tourism (CBT) that differs from homestay tourism in other regions. The homestay accommodation program is a unique tourism product enabling tourists to experience the culture and lifestyle of local people. Homestays are intended to attract tourists with a certain demographic profile who desire authentic experiences. Thus far, the commitment to homestay development has involved the establishment of comprehensive planning, the construction of infrastructure, and the promotion of Malaysia. However, the homestay business can also contribute significant supplemental income to local people and can instill mindfulness regarding preserving the cultural legacy of Malaysia. Therefore, homestays are a potentially a pro-poor tourism strategy, as well as an ecotourism tool to enhance local quality of life and social capital in Malaysia

The Intermediatory Role of Microfinancing: Creating Sustainability and Enhancing Agripreneurship in Developing Countries

With GDP growth rate of 8.99% agriculture, contributes 24% to the Nations GDP while the entrepreneurial sector contributes 47%, improving the economic base through agri-preneurship is achievable. The study thus examines, the intermediatory role of Microfinancing, creating sustainability and enhancing agri-preneurship in developing countries through a descriptive survey, with questionnaire administered to 80 purposively selected long-time microfinance banks from 2 geo-political zones. Findings indicated that microfinance banks are closer to the grassroot, yet its financial inclusion does not embrace agriculture; very sparse microfinance presence in rural areas, and agro-policy of micro-finance banks should be all-inclusive. Persistent inflation affects the value of loan (Mean 3.1667); Relationship exists between microfinancing and customer growth with 62.3% correlation which is significant at 5% level. Equally, a positive relationship subsists between microfinancing and agri-preneurship depicting a possible link for agripreneurship Vision 2020. The study recommended that new microfinance strategies that can enhance economic growth must be seriously pursued. Efficient linkage to stakeholders within and outside the microfinance system require best practises by managers. Microfinancing targeted at rural agri-preneurship development is suggested

Personal and Environment Factors Associated with Attraction to Tropical Urban Parks in Peninsular Malaysia

There is increasing demand for urban parks as recreational areas amidst urbanization in Malaysia. Urban parks are the most readily accessible resource for interactions with nature across multi groups in many urban cities, including tropical cities. This paper reports a research conducted in 2013/2014 to determine the overall quality of visits and park users level of motivations in selected six public parks in Peninsular Malaysia. The result of this study which examined 2,139 park users in 2013/2014 level of motivation and overall quality of visit in selected six public parks in Peninsular Malaysia and the result shows that about three quarter of the users are youths between 17 and 36 years old. For the quality of visit attributes, park users rated "nature and environment" as the highest dimensions with mean score (M = 4.11). The statistical analysis showed that element of shadiness as an important factor for nature motivation. The common shadiness element experienced by urban park users were considered to be unique landscape and significantly different from Western and developed countries

Potential of canopy tourism in Malaysia

The canopy walkway, a structure for observing the upper part of forest canopy was first built in Malaysia in the early 1960s. Initially, the structure was built purely for research, but later opened to the public as an attraction in natural areas. This paper discusses the potential of canopy tourism in Malaysia, its evolution, as a tool in conservation and strategies for the sustainability of canopy tourism while serving as a recreational facility in our forests

Willingness to pay towards the sustainability of Forest Research Institute Malaysia’s (FRIM’s) canopy walkway

FRIM’s canopy walkway is one of the main visitors’ attractions at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). It was built in 1992, initially for research purposes but later in 1993 the walkway was opened to the public for education and nature appreciation activities. Since its opening, the walkway has recorded visitation from tourists all around the globe, bringing good revenues to FRIM’s management. A study was conducted to estimate the economic value of FRIM’s canopy walkway, based on visitors’ expressing willingness to pay (WTP). The relevant values were estimated by utilizing dichotomous choice form of contingent valuation method and uses Logit and Probit models to estimate the visitor’s WTP responses for the access to the walkway. Based on the estimation results, the calculated mean of WTP ranged from MYR5.33 to MYR13.32 for the Logit model, and for the Probit model ranged from MYR5.39 to MYR13.02 based on 95 percent confidence interval. The study had shown that visitors to FRIM’s canopy walkway are willing to pay about MYR7.61 for the entrance perm it. The entrance fee collections are used as additional funds to the allocations made for the costs of maintenance and conservation of FRIM’s canopy walkway, which are quite high due to the technicality of the walkway’s structure and logistics problem to access the facility

Can resin coatings improve the flexural properties of highly viscous glass ionomer cements?

This study examined the effect of self-adhesive resin coatings on the flexural properties of three highly viscous glass ionomer cements (HVGICs), specifically Shofu Zirconomer (ZR), GC Equia Forte (EQ), and SDI Riva Self Cure (RV). Custom-made Telfon molds were used to produce 60 beam-shaped specimens (12 × 2 × 2 mm) for each material. The specimens were finished, measured, and randomly divided into three groups of 20. Ten specimens in each group were left uncoated, while the remaining ten were coated with their respective manufacturers’ resin coats. All specimens were immersed in distilled water, artificial saliva or citric acid at 37 °C for seven days and subjected to flexural testing with a 5 KN load at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min till fracture occurred. Flexural data were analysed using one-way ANOVA/Tukey’s post-hoc test and independent sample T-test (α=0.05). Mean flexural modulus ranged from 0.72±0.13 to 13.19±1.00 GPa while mean flexural strength ranged from 4.32±0.84 to 45.83±4.82 MPa after immersing in the different mediums. The flexural modulus/strength of uncoated ZR and RV were generally comparable or greater than when coated. However, EQ was mostly improved when coated regardless of immersion mediums. RV and EQ generally offered the best flexural performance when uncoated and coated respectively

Motivations for outdoor recreation in tropical urban parks

The modern urban environments generally limit people’s access to nature has resulting in reduced human–nature interaction.Thus, establishment of urban parks are potential resource for a diversity of urban people to interact with nature including in urban tropical cities. This article will determine individual or the park characteristics has influenced the park users’ level of satisfaction in selected five public parks including Penang Municipal Park and Taiping Lake Garden, Perak. The park users’ strongly agreed that peaceful attribute as the main attraction in urban parks (Mean = 4.21). Daily trips to the parks had reduce their stress (M= 4.42); strengthen relationships with families and friends (M = 4.20) and they felt happier (M= 4.13). The Malay, male, youth group (15 to 24 years old), single and people with lower income (< MYR 3000) were dominated in the urban parks, and many of them were universities and higher grade levels.The statistical analysis confirmed socio-demographic characteristics (age, ethnicity, and education attainment) significantly influenced the satisfaction on nature attractions. Peaceful surrounding and outdoor recreation activities in urban parks enrich urbanities psychological and social benefit (stress reduction, become happy and strengthen relationships), which positive reflect people’s well-being and quality of life.Urban people also prefer park with a variety of recreation activities instead attractive natural areas.Notably, it fulfils the needs of open spaces increment in sustainable cities for positive community transformation in social and psychological benefit