Abstract

In favour of the Big Five Invertebrates form the basis for ecosystem functioning but are typically neglected in ecotourism activities. Entotourism is introduced to elevate awareness about the potential of invertebrates and their conservation activity through tourism. Improved awareness via tourism activity can potentially lead to improved conservation practices. Yet, do tourists accept entotourism as another product of ecotourism? This study aims to determine the perception of tourists on entotourism activity in Sabah. We are implementing a mixed-method to acquire information needed via questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. At the same time, we applied a random sampling technique to gain the respective respondents. Data analysis used a t-test to examine gender perception and presented via Spider-Web configuration. In comparison, we used content analysis via Leximancer for qualitative analysis. This study demonstrated that people have a slightly different perception of insects and awareness based on their gender. Results show that most participants responded positively to insect information, awareness and their interest in certain insects. Respondents also gave their support to entotourism, which provided them with some new knowledge about insects. The interview has also indicated a positive perception of invertebrate information as part of the entotourism concept included in ecotourism activity. In conclusion, tourists’ perception of entotourism activity unveils a significant potential for the inclusion of invertebrate into current and future ecotourism activity, especially in Sabah. Alternately, it can be applied as a preparatory step for better planning and execution of invertebrate’s conservation and entotourism activity.

摘要

支持五大无脊椎动物构成了生态系统功能的基础，但通常在生态旅游活动中被忽略。引入Entotourism可以提高人们对无脊椎动物的潜力及其通过旅游业进行保护的认识。通过旅游活动提高认识可以潜在地改善保护做法。但是，游客是否会接受生态旅游作为生态旅游的另一种产品？这项研究旨在确定游客对沙巴的内向旅游活动的看法。我们正在实施一种混合方法，以通过问卷调查和深度访谈来获取所需的信息。同时，我们应用了随机抽样技术来获得各自的受访者。数据分析使用t检验来检验性别感知，并通过Spider-Web配置进行呈现。相比下，我们使用通过Leximancer进行的内容分析进行定性分析。这项研究表明，人们对昆虫的认识和基于性别的认识略有不同。结果表明，大多数参与者对昆虫信息，认识和他们对某些昆虫的兴趣都做出了积极的回应。受访者还支持内向旅游，这为他们提供了有关昆虫的一些新知识。采访还表明，对无脊椎信息的积极理解是生态旅游活动中所包含的纯旅游概念的一部分。总之，游客对内在旅游活动的感知揭示了将无脊椎动物纳入当前和未来的生态旅游活动的巨大潜力，尤其是在沙巴州。交替，