Adverse Effect of Drug Trafficking & Prostitution on Malaysian Tourism

This report discusses the adverse impact of drug trafficking & prostitution on the sustainability of Malaysian tourism. It provides a detailed overview of the negative impact of tourism on the socio-cultural and environmental condition of Malaysia. The report also discusses the impact of drug use and prostitution by the tourist on the society and environment of Malaysia.

Running head: TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Issue Selected Adverse Impact of Drug Trafficking & Prostitution on Sustainability of
Malaysian Tourism
Point of the Article: Drug Trafficking & Prostitution Affects the Sustainability of Tourism
badly in Malaysia.
Significance (Key findings): Negative effects of Drug & Prostitution on Malaysian Tourism
Tile: Adverse Effect of Drug Trafficking & Prostitution on Malaysian Tourism
Introduction
The main aim of this report is to provide a brief idea about the adverse impact of drug
trafficking & prostitution on the sustainability of Malaysian tourism. This paper also discusses
the impact of drug use and prostitution by the tourist on the society and environment of
Malaysia. Malaysia is considered as one of the best tourist spot among all the beautiful tourist
places present across the globe. Attracted by the natural beauty and charm thousands of
foreigners has visited there regularly. This has immense impact on raising Malaysian economic
and financial status and securing the profit level of the nation. As per the statistical report of
2013, more that 16.7 million of foreigners from different nations has visited and helped to gain
the monetary profit. Beside all the above -mentioned benefits this growing popularity of tourism
has put adverse effects of social, environmental and ecological balance of Malaysia (Kassim,
2017). According to the local residents of Malaysia, visitors often seems to perform different
criminal activities, indulge in spreading different life endangering diseases like HIV/ AIDS.
Drug trafficking, smuggling are practiced by different tourists visited to the said place. Pollution
level has reached to high position due to the huge number of tourist visitors while during the
time of their visit (Nejati, Mohamed & Omar, 2014). They often promotes the concept of

2TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
smuggling, has committed different criminal activities like murder, suicide, and often destroy the
cultural heritage and environmental beauty of Malaysia (Ismail, Razak & Ismail, 2013). Another
four articles has analyzed in this paper with the purpose of providing detailed overview about the
negative impact of tourism on the socio-cultural and environmental condition of Malaysia.
Discussion
To provide a detailed report about the socio-cultural and environmental impact of tourism
in Malaysia, four article has discussed below:
Selected Literature
1. Karim, A. Z., & Rokis, R. (2017). People’s Perception of the Socio-Cultural and
Environmental Impacts of Tourism in Malaysia: A Community-Reflective
Study. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(14).
“This paper shows that Malaysia has considered as the best tourist spot among all tourist
places present across the globe. The paper also discusses about community’s view of socio-
cultural and environmental impact of tourism in Malaysia (Karim & Rokis, 2017). Tourism
industry has noted a remarkable growth in Malaysia. Different surveys and researches have
conducted for determining the real socio-cultural and environmental effect of tourism in the
said country. It has derived that drug trafficking, murders, prostitution and other illegal
activities increased and put adverse impact on both the society and cultural background of
Malaysia.

3TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Key Findings:
The paper is solely based on the direct surveillance of the perception of different citizens
belong to the nation. Considering the growing negative socio-cultural and environmental impacts
in mind, Malaysian government has conducted different research programs and surveys to
recognize the real cause of the said problems. After analyzing all the reports derived from
different surveys, that tourism has both negative and positive impact on the social, cultural and
environmental facts of Malaysia (Leng, Khan & Rahim, 2014). Attracted by the natural beauty
and pleasant environment huge number of people from different foreign countries have visited
there.
This growth has helped to enhance the economic and financial standard of Malaysia. People
belongs to different community present in the said country has become happy with this growing
rate of tourism, as this helps to generate wide range of job opportunity and has helped them to
improve their standard of living (Amin et al., 2013). Besides, all the above-mentioned
advantages or benefits, there are some adverse effects of tourism that gradually raises different
problems for all citizens of Malaysia. As per the report it has been noticed that people who used
to visit this country for spending good times or holidays has practiced different activities that
generate trouble for Malaysian citizens. It has noted that drug trafficking, smuggling, murders
and other criminal activities have raised and even the concept of prostitution has increased
(Hampton, 2009). For this reasons, this country has affected by the growing rate of different life
hacking diseases like HIV/AIDS. While demonstrating the problems of growing tourism, few
Malaysians said that to provide good transport facilities government has developed different
express highways and national roads by cutting trees and forest. This growing rate of
deforestation has put negative impact on the environment of the said country. Several measures

4TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
have taken by the Malaysian government to reduce this adverse effect of tourism. Government of
this country should impose strict laws against drug use and smuggling and should take effective
measures to reduce the negative impact of prostitution.
2. Sabtu, N., Hasan, M. A., & Sahari, N. H. (2018). Formulating Shariah Compliant Ethical
Code for Tourists in Malaysia. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Halal Conference
(INHAC 2016) (pp. 139-151). Springer, Singapore.
“This report provides a brief overview about the adverse effects of tourism on the Islamic
culture and society of Malaysia (Sabtu, Hasan & Sahari, 2018). The paper discusses that tourism
plays a vital role in developing the financial standard of the country. The growing rate of tourism
has raised the income level and job opportunities for Malaysians (Lo et al., 2013). Besides the
continuous growth of income level and job facilities, tourism has several disadvantages related to
the emergence of smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal prostitution and other criminal activities. It
has affected dressing culture and traditions of Malaysia (Dyson, 2013).”
Key findings
This paper provides a brief idea about different problems raised due to continuous growth of
tourism industry in Malaysia. It provides a detailed idea about different facilities provided by the
Malaysian government for the wide range of foreign tourist. The Halal tourism in Malaysia is
well known for their facilities and services (Singh, 2014). With the purpose of attracting huge
foreign visitors from different parts of the world, Malaysian government has developed different
facilities and established good highways. This has raised huge profit for the said country.
However, this growth of tourism industry has proved beneficial for the Malaysian government, it
has several negative impacts both social and environmental aspects of Malaysia (Gan & Nair,

5TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
2016). The Malaysian culture and traditions has faced the major threat of cultural diversities and
variations of choices and preferences. Along with the problem of cultural diversity, different
criminal activities has increased. These are crimes related to illegal prostitution, drug abuse,
smuggling, unethical or inappropriate dressing and other similar ones. These issues have created
trouble for different citizens of the said country (Mosbah & Al Khuja, 2014). Thus, the
mentioned article aims to formulate strategies based on Shariah principles to reduce the adverse
effects of said problems. According to Shariah’s principle, tourist should behave ethically with
different citizens of Malaysia. In other words, tourist should show respect towards the culture
and traditions of different inhabitants of Malaysia.
3. Jaafar, M., Ismail, S., & Rasoolimanesh, S. M. (2015). Perceived social effects of tourism
development: A case study of Kinabalu National Park. Theoretical and Empirical
Researches in Urban Management, 10(2), 5-20.
“This article provides a general idea about the impact of socio- cultural aspects of tourism in
Malaysia. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (2010), the growth rate of
tourism has increased to 4% and it will generate 9.4% of the Gross World Product (Jaafar &
Rasoolimanesh, 2015). For this reason, tourism industry has considered as the fastest growing
industry that generate more than 30 million profit per year. This growing rate of tourism helps to
generate the financial status of Malaysia. Simultaneously, this helps to increase different scopes
for the general citizens of Malaysia to attain the better standard of living (Butler, Kbhoo-
Lattimore & Mura, 2014). However, this growing rate of tourism industry in Malaysia has
several advantages, it has also comprised with some serious negative impacts. These negative
sides are tourism acts as the main catalyst for generating cultural conflicts, foreign tourist often
seems to indulge in different criminal activities related to drugs trafficking, smuggling. These

6TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
actions has affect the social and cultural aspects Malaysia badly. Beside all the mentioned
activities, tourism has affect Malaysian environment badly because the growing crowd became
the main cause of environmental pollution.”
Key findings:
The above- mentioned article aims to provide a detailed overview of the about both the
positive and negative impact of growing tourism on social, cultural and environmental facts of
Malaysia. The said country is considered as the major tourist spot. Tourism has extracted
economic, social and financial benefits to the country (Ismail, Masron & Ahmad, 2014).
Malaysia has featured natural beauty and freshness. The tropical rainforest of the Malaysia is
considered as the oldest forest and granted as the diverse ecosystem present in the globe.
Malaysia has considered as the best place for ecotourism and nature tourism. Attracted by the
natural beauty and atmospheric privileges huge number of foreign tourist visits this place and
helps the country to extract financial benefits. This report provides the case study of Kinabul
National Park and discusses the impact of tourism on Socio- cultural and environmental side of
Malaysia. Kinabul National park is situated on the South Eastern part of the said country. It has
the largest ecosystem comprising wide variety of species, plants and animals. This natural beauty
of Malaysia has adversely affected by tourism. In order to provide better tourist facilities,
Malaysian government has developed national highways by cutting forests and tress. Thus,
raised a major threat of environmental damage. Beside this environmental destruction, tourist
used to commit different criminal activities related drug trafficking, smuggling and generate
negative impact on the Malaysian society. Thus, the growing rate of success in Malaysian
tourism has put negative impact on the environment and society of the same.

7TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
4. Muda, Z., Jamil, D. M., Jamil, N. H. A., & Zulkiply, S. F. (2019). Islamic Tourism:
Emerging Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in Tourism Industry of Malaysia.
In Contemporary Management and Science Issues in the Halal Industry (pp. 303-317).
Springer, Singapore.
“This report aims to provide a detailed idea about impact of different trends, challenges, and
opportunities on the Malaysian Tourism industry”.
Key Findings:
This articles aims to provide a detailed idea about the impact of the emergence of new
trends, opportunities on the sustainable development of the Malaysian tourism. Malaysia is
famous for its natural beauty and tradition (Muda et al., 2019). As per statics, this tourism
industry is growing rapidly. With the emergence of tourist Malaysian traditions and culture
has mixed with different new traditional thoughts of different countries. It has helped the
industry to adopt new ideas and measures for generating profit. Beside all the advantages,
this emergence of new cultures has affect the originality of tourism industry of Malaysia.
Thus, it can conclude that excessive emergence of new foreign traditions has affect the
sustainable development of Malaysian tourism.
5. Azam, M., Alam, M. M., & Hafeez, M. H. (2018). Effect of tourism on environmental
pollution: Further evidence from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Journal of cleaner
production, 190, 330-338.
“This provides the fact that tourism plays a vital role in generating socio-economic and
cultural benefits in Malaysia. Tourism industry is considered as the fastest growing industry
that helps the country to achieve success in attaining the better standard of living. Besides all

8TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
the advantages derived from this industry, there are some major issues that restricts the
country to sustain its natural freshness (Khairi & Wahab, 2018). With the growing
emergence of foreign tourists in Malaysia, the level of environmental pollution has raised.
This article provides the adverse effect of the emission of Carbon dioxide and other harmful
gasses on the country’s environment (Azam, Alam & Hafeez, 2018). Thus, growing tourism
has adverse impact on the social and environmental facts of Malaysia”
Key Findings:
This article introduce general overview about the negative impact of tourism on the
environmental and social facts of Malaysia. This article shows that tourism has helped the
country to generate its socio-economic benefits of the citizens of Malaysia. Tourism has raised
country’s economy and generated welfare of the normal citizens of the said country. According
to this article, tourism industry has considered the fasted growing industry. The emission of
carbon dioxide from different tourist has caused different environmental problems in Malaysia.
Thus, this article states, besides all the positive impacts, tourism has several drawbacks that put
adverse effect on social and environmental aspects of Malaysia.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the five mentioned articles, this paper concludes that tourism industry
is considered as such industry that grows rapidly. Malaysia has granted as the best tourist spot
present in the world. Tourism has helped the country to generate maximum profit. This industry
plays a vital role in attaining better financial condition of Malaysia. Local people of Malaysia
said that they are happy because this industry has generated the scope of employment facilities
and helps them to improve their standard of living. They also states that this industry has helped

9TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
them to gain knowledge about different cultures and traditions. Thus, it helps the country to
enhance their economic, social and cultural knowledge as well as enrich their fund. Besides all
the socio-economic benefits, tourism industry has several drawbacks that put adverse effect on
the environmental, social and cultural aspects of the country. After conducting several researches
and surveys it has found that many foreign tourist often indulge with different criminal activities
like drug trafficking, smuggling, murders, illegal prostitution and other similar activities. These
activities has hampered the social and cultural traditions of Malaysia. Another important aspect
that Malaysian government needs to control, due to the overcrowd pollution level has increased
in Malaysia and affect the country’s environment badly. There are some people belongs to the
local community of Malaysia has started cutting different trees and forest to develop hotels and
tourists buildings for raising their personal profit. This activity has put negative impact on the
environment of the country. For these above-mentioned reasons, Malaysian government should
adopt effective measures and develop different strict laws against the mentioned criminal
activities practiced by different foreign tourists and should impose ban on deforestation. This
would help the government to protect their environment as well as the social and cultural
traditions of Malaysia.

10TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Reference
Amin, M., Yahya, Z., Ismayatim, W. F. A., Nasharuddin, S. Z., & Kassim, E. (2013). Service
quality dimension and customer satisfaction: An empirical study in the Malaysian hotel
industry. Services Marketing Quarterly, 34(2), 115-125.
Azam, M., Alam, M. M., & Hafeez, M. H. (2018). Effect of tourism on environmental pollution:
Further evidence from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Journal of cleaner
production, 190, 330-338.
Butler, G., Khoo-Lattimore, C., & Mura, P. (2014). Heritage tourism in Malaysia: Fostering a
collective national identity in an ethnically diverse country. Asia Pacific Journal of
Tourism Research, 19(2), 199-218.
Dyson, J. (2013). Malaysia's tobacco sector fighting back against boom in smuggling. Tobacco
Journal International, (1), 41-42.
Gan, J. E., & Nair, V. (2016). An appraisal of the institutional structure of rural tourism in
Malaysia: A conceptual framework. Journal of Environmental and Tourism
Analyses, 4(1), 97.
Hampton, M. P. (2009). The socio-economic impacts of Singaporean cross-border tourism in
Malaysia and Indonesia.
Hanifah, N. A., & Webb, A. B. (2017). Ecotourism and Biopiracy: A Legal Perspective on the
Sustainability of Tourism Destination in Malaysia. In Balancing Development and
Sustainability in Tourism Destinations (pp. 9-19). Springer, Singapore.

11TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Ismail, N. A., Razak, S. M., & Ismail, M. (2013). The impact of tourism towards the culture
practice of indigenous people. Hospitality and Tourism: Synergizing Creativity and
Innovation in Research, 369.
Ismail, N., Masron, T., & Ahmad, A. (2014). Cultural heritage tourism in Malaysia: Issues and
challenges. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 12, p. 01059). EDP Sciences.
Jaafar, M., Ismail, S., & Rasoolimanesh, S. M. (2015). Perceived social effects of tourism
development: A case study of Kinabalu National Park. Theoretical and Empirical
Researches in Urban Management, 10(2), 5-20.
Karim, A. Z., & Rokis, R. (2017). People’s Perception of the Socio-Cultural and Environmental
Impacts of Tourism in Malaysia: A Community-Reflective Study. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 4(14).
Kassim, A. (2017). Recent trends in transnational population inflows into Malaysia: policy,
issues and challenges. Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies, 51(1), 9-28.
Khairi, A., & Wahab, A. A. (2018). The Smuggling Activity and Irregular Migration to
Malaysia: A Case Study of the Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar. GLOBAL JOURNAL
AL-THAQAFAH, 8(1), 73-81.
Leng, O. T. S., Khan, S., & Rahim, R. A. (2014). Internet: The double-edged sword of
trafficking of women in Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences &
Humanities, 22, 149-160.

12TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Lo, M. C., Songan, P., Mohamad, A. A., & Yeo, A. W. (2013). Rural tourism and destination
image: Community perception in tourism planning. The Macro-theme review, 2(1), 102-
118.
Mosbah, A., & Al Khuja, M. S. A. (2014). A review of tourism development in
Malaysia. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(5), 1-9.
Muda, Z., Jamil, D. M., Jamil, N. H. A., & Zulkiply, S. F. (2019). Islamic Tourism: Emerging
Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in Tourism Industry of Malaysia.
In Contemporary Management and Science Issues in the Halal Industry (pp. 303-317).
Springer, Singapore.
Nejati, M., Mohamed, B., & Omar, S. I. (2014). Locals' perceptions towards the impacts of
tourism and the importance of local engagement: A comparative study of two islands in
Malaysia. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis, 62(2), 135-146.
Sabtu, N., Hasan, M. A., & Sahari, N. H. (2018). Formulating Shariah Compliant Ethical Code
for Tourists in Malaysia. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Halal Conference
(INHAC 2016) (pp. 139-151). Springer, Singapore.
Singh, N. (2014). Healthcare Tourism: An Emerging Concept. International Journal of
Management Research and Reviews, 4(7), 741.