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MESSAGE BY JES PRESIDENT
THE PRESIDENT OF JAPAN ECOTOURISM SOCIETY
MR. KAZUO AICHI
It is a great pleasure that the
Asia Pacific Ecotourism Conference (APeco 2002) will be held in Kota
Kinabalu, Malaysia. I would like to express my deepest congratulations
to the people in Malaysia and the chairman of the conference, Mr. Albert
Teo. We, at Japan Ecotourism Society, are most honored to be able to
support this conference with five other organizations. In particular,
120 JES member delegates will take part in the conference to present
their findings through the field trips in Sabah and Sarawak.
Malaysia is considered to be one of the leading countries in ecotourism.
Malaysia also has a great number of ecotourism sites throughout the
country. This should be a good opportunity for the participants from
other countries to experience the best practices of ecotourism in
Malaysia.
Malaysia is also geographically located at the center of Asia-Pacific
region. Asia-Pacific region has been increasingly recognized
internationally as the center of tourism, both outbound and inbound. In
this matter, this conference held in Malaysia can provide us the
opportunity to exchange ideas and opinions. I also expect that this
exchange will continue in the future in order to build good
relationships among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The term “ecotourism” has been increasingly spread all over the world
for a decade. However, the definition or concept of ecotourism is
somewhat vague. The perception of the idea of ecotourism sometimes
varies from country to country or from place to place. It is therefore
very important that through this conference, the APeco 2002, we will be
able to discover the “opportunities and new approaches to ecotourism” as
themed. As we have learned, ecotourism can be considered a sustainable
tourism development. I hope that ecotourism can contribute to the
conservation of the natural environment and wildlife, and the
traditional culture and the development of the local economy by
employing the outcomes from the conference.
Kazuo Aichi
President, Japan Ecotourism Society
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