KOTA KINABALU: Cleanliness must be regarded as a basic service with a significant impact on the overall travel experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private sector industry players must change their attitudes towards the overall environment and cleanliness aspects, especially the cleanliness of public restrooms, to gain a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, businesses and operators are strongly urged to comply to these standards, which will \u00a0<\/strong>bring their businesses to new heights and burnish the international image of Malaysian tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleanliness is one of the ASEAN Tourism Standards criteria and requirements outlined during the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2023 held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from February 2 to 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other areas are safety, security, health,\u00a0 environmental policy, amenities and facilities which are essential to the overall travel experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ATF 2023 under the theme \u201cJourney to Wonderful Destinations\u201d, emphasises ASEAN’s underlying strength and commitment to position 10 unique nations as one united destination in promoting intra-ASEAN and international travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The highlight of the ATF event was the recognition and award of the prestigious ASEAN Tourism Standard Awards to 18 tourism businesses and stakeholders in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister (MOTAC) Dato\u2019 Sri Tiong King Sing and MOTAC Secretary General Saraya Arbi\u00a0 attended the official announcement and awards ceremony on February 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism service standardisation are regarded by the 10 ASEAN member countries as essential to improving the quality of tourism products and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And promoting responsible management among tourism businesses and stakeholders in the region to position ASEAN as an in-demand quality single destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is in line with the ASEAN Strategic Tourism Plan 2016-2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The strategic plan states that: \u201cBy 2025, ASEAN will be a quality tourism destination offering a unique and diverse ASEAN experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd will be committed to responsible, sustainable, inclusive and balanced tourism development, so as to contribute significantly to the socioeconomic well-being of the ASEAN people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, service providers from the public and private entities are advised to follow ASEAN guidelines and standards as a key strategy for rebuilding better and regaining tourist trust and confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ASEAN tourism standards integrates and adapts various existing international and national standards, best practices, and guidelines, as well as ASEAN member states protocols, to reflect common regional parameters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n ASEAN tourism businesses and destinations that comply with the standards were honoured in four categories of ASEAN Tourism Standard Awards at the ATF 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are\u00a0 the 4th ASEAN Homestay Award which were won by Sungai Setar (Penang); Wong Tok Rendong Langkawi (Kedah); Taun Gusi, Kota Belud (Sabah); Bario Highland (Sarawak); and Labu Kubong (Perak).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The winners for the 3rd ASEAN Community Based Tourism (CBT) Award were Padas Farmstay, Tenom (Sabah); Mari-Mari Cultural Village, Inanam (Sabah); and Jonker Walk (Melaka).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The awardees for 2nd ASEAN Public Toilet Award were the public toilets of Lurah Bus Terminal (Pahang); Esplanade, Lumut (Perak); Mini Zoo Taman Teruntum (Pahang); Petron Stadium Hang Jebat (Melaka); and Teluk Mahkota Sedili (Johor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the 2nd ASEAN Spa Services Award, the winners were Spa Village Pangkor Laut Resort (Perak); The Ritz Carlton Spa Langkawi (Kedah); Iridium Spa thr St Regis Langkawi (Kedah); and Tranquillity Spa and Wellness (Selangor).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KOTA KINABALU: Cleanliness must be regarded as a basic service with a significant impact on the overall travel experience. Private sector industry players must change their attitudes towards the overall environment and cleanliness aspects, especially the cleanliness of public restrooms, to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, businesses and operators are strongly urged to comply to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}