Indigenous Cultural Tourism in Malaysia

There are almost 500 million indigenous people in the world, in over 90 countries. Each of the indigenous groups has its own culture, belief, and skills. This has made them a very special community in the world. The uniqueness of the indigenous people has attracted people to come to learn and experience their culture. Thus, indigenous culture has been used as part of tourist attractions in many countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The tourism sector will benefit the indigenous community and the government itself. The indigenous community gets to improve their socio-economy and will continue to practice their culture and the government gets to improve their revenue through tourism. Malaysia is home to almost 200,000 thousand Indigenous people (Orang Asli) from three main ethnic groups. Thus, Malaysia has implemented the indigenous culture of Orang Asli as part of its tourism sector. Hence, this study is conducted to analyze the law and practice of indigenous cultural tourism in the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia. Apart from that, a comparison will be made to Australia to study its law and practice in promoting aboriginal cultural tourism. However, this study finds that challenges remain in the need to balance the protection of Orang Asli’s culture and socio-economic development. Furthermore, the inefficiency of local management remains a challenge in promoting indigenous cultural tourism in Malaysia. Therefore, Malaysia needs to improve on its management to enhance indigenous cultural tourism in Malaysia.