The purpose of this paper is to look at the physical tourism impacts experienced by the communities of Redang Island and Perhentian Island – two tourist islands located close to the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The physical tourism impacts are examined via environmental and infrastructure related attributes (19 attributes), which are further categorized into sustainability, environment, greenhouse effects, public and tourist facilities maintenance, sewage system management, rural areas and deforestation. All of these indicators indirectly measure the impact of climate change in these island destinations.
The paper uses a questionnaire survey with an instrument based on prior work by Ap and Cromptom (1998) with regard to air pollution, deforestation and land fertility; Tetlow and Hanusch (2012) in relation to biodiversity; Sunlu (2003) in line with greenhouse effects, water quality, natural landscape and solid waste; and Cessford and Dingwall (1999), corresponding to physical impacts.
Results for Perhentian Island indicate serious physical impacts resulting from tourism development, compared with less serious impacts on Redang Island. Both islands were observed to experience tourism development progress that is well-blended with their natural environment, and the level of physical impact dependency on tourism development can be assessed using the environmental and infrastructure variables.
While the paper reports on findings from both Perhentian and Redang Islands, results from this paper could well represent other communities in many other Malaysian island locations (or perhaps the wider region), facing a similar phenomenon.
The paper contributes to an understanding of how to investigate each variable independently, as each island is undergoing a different lifecycle phase, regardless of the fact that some islands may be mirroring each other. In addition, the paper envisages the importance of integrating social exchange theory and integrated threat theory, when it comes to evaluating how people judge the consequences of their actions.
