Education-Tourism: elevating tourism industry to a newer heights

The tourism industry is well known for its uniqueness and integrability with other industries such as transportation, food and beverages, construction, business, and merchant and many more. This harmonic relation leads to the establishment of various types of tourism such as Eco-Tourism, Health and Wellness Tourism, Business Tourism, Education Tourism and many more.

Education Tourism is defined as a travel to a certain destination with the objective of new knowledge which can improve the standard or livelihood of the traveler.  This trend can be seen mushrooming in Europe, Asia and South East Asia. Nevertheless, Sarawak is one of the well-known destinations for Education Tourism offering a tremendous option of courses and programs ranging from Technical to Management expertise by the public and private universities and colleges. For the context of higher learning institute (Universities and Colleges), the enrollment of students from different states and other foreign countries will be the first step in embracing the Education Tourism.

This initiative leads to a significant economic benefits or values. For instance, a huge enrollment of foreign students from a higher income country will also increase the spending of the students as they are equipped with a great buying power. Thus, this will stimulate the growth and development of local businesses in accommodating foreign students. Furthermore, this will also contribute to the tourist arrivals and receipts as the family members tend to visit the students during their holidays.

Besides that, Education Tourism can also be the fundamental of the concept “Responsible Tourism”. As we are aware, Responsible tourism is the way forward in reshaping the tourism industry after it was affected by the outbreak of the pandemic. As the concept is perfectly in line, tourists who are practicing Education Tourism can be contributing to Responsible Tourism for instance; an international researcher are welcome to Study on the floras and faunas and at the same time taking part in preserving the rainforest for the future generation.

In a nutshell, there are a lot of benefits for Education Tourism. This type of travel will need support and enabling system such as marketing, infrastructure, facilities, etc. The ability to positioned Sarawak as the center for Education tourism and other types of tourism will surely left a huge impact on the local tourism industry.