Compliance Audit of Safety, Health, Environment and Services at Selected Ecotourism Sites in Malaysia

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the compliances on Safety, Health, Environmental and Services (SHE) parameters in ecotourism sites. A number of ecotourism sites in Peninsular Malaysia were chosen randomly for analysis. The success indicators were identified for each parameter and data of evaluation activities were gathered by using a checklist to quantify the performances of the 17 selected ecotourism sites. The evaluation focuses on the relevant practices and consistency of the environmental management system towards sustainable ecotourism that was applied on-site. The result showed that in order of importance, the four dominant elements are safety (12.63 percent), services (11.48 percent), environmental (9.65 percent) and health (8.64 percent). There is 57.60 percent left as a residue of percentage and this explained most of operators in ecotourism sites did not fully addressed SHE management issues. Compliances of each ecotourism sites showed their differences by the indicators and therefore grouped into grades of ECO 1, ECO 2 and ECO 3. Site 10 was ranked as the highest level of ECO 3 and Site 4, Site 7, Site 8, Site 11, Site 12, Site 13, Site 14 and Site 15 were ranked as the lowest level of ECO 1. Based on the ranking of ecotourism sites, the percentages showed small figures as it have been transformed into certainty factors in order to suit the ranking system for basic module in ESRG website. The values ranges from the lowest (-52.95 percent) for Site 7 to the highest (40.25 percent) for Site 10. A Compliance Performance Report on Site 1 was made as a sample towards corrective and preventive actions. The indicators used for this research were inserted into Moderator’s Rating Page meant to rate ecotourism sites and to serve as an important diagnostic tool in evaluating the sites performance for SHE