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A theme park is an attraction that the public enjoys. A theme park provides amusement and creates a leisure time for the public to spend time with family, friends and other relatives. Therefore, it is critical to determine the public's expectations and perceptions of theme park recreation. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of public participation in a theme park recreational activity. The theme parks selected are Sunway Lagoon Water Park, iCity Water World, and Wet World Water Park. All of the selected theme parks are located in the state of Selangor. The objective of the study is to investigate the influence factor of public perception on theme park attendance based on social demographics. Due to the Covid-19 situation, the survey was conducted through an online form using a Google form. A total of 437 people from the selected theme parks were surveyed. The study found that most theme park visitors are students and are between 18 and 30 years old. The result shows that public participation in theme park recreational activities is significant. It was found that people who do their leisure activities in amusement parks have higher expectations. On the other hand, the influence factor of public perception of participation in theme park leisure activities was significant. The iCity Water World has the highest influence. The influence factor of public perception of participation is statistically significant in theme parks. Nevertheless, the management should cooperate and communicate with the government and private organizations to improve the country's economy due to the Covid-19 situation.

Kg. Tudan is a village situated in the buffer zone of Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve (CRBR). About 402 people live in Kg. Tudan, and majority are farmers. However, the steep terrain and infertility of the soil has affected the livelihood of communities, making them dependent on the surrounding forest to support their living. The Sabah State Government, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) implemented a project in Kg. Tudan, Tuaran, Sabah from 1st July, 2013 until 30th June 2017, under a programme called "Sustainable Development for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation" (SDBEC). The project's main focus was to develop sustainable livelihoods through a participatory approach and the concept of living in harmony with the environment. After the project ended, a qualitative study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the SDBEC project implementation in Kg. Tudan and its implication towards the local communities' conservation awareness. Thirty-three villagers of Kg. Tudan were interviewed. The data was analysed using Leximancer software with results illustrated in the form of a conceptual map. The study's findings indicated that the knowledge and commitment of the community in Kg. Tudan on conservation was enhanced through a participatory approach. The study also identified that the community of Kg. Tudan required capacity building and integration of sustainable livelihoods with community-based natural resource management. We recommended for ministries and NGOs engaged in environmental and biodiversity conservation to direct more efforts towards developing sustainable practices that facilitate local communities' participation in preserving natural resources.

Pollution-free rivers with protected riverbanks offer considerable scope for tourism development. In recent decades there has been increasing interest in rivers as a tourism resource. Globally, the demand for river cruising and water sports has grown rapidly as has the development of riverbanks for tourism purposes including accommodation, restaurants, and shopping. However, the role of local communities attitudes and perceptions in the development of river tourism is crucial to developing a successful tourism resource. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of local residents regarding the development of river tourism on the Petagas River, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 79 residents of river communities to explore their perceptions of river tourism development on the Petagas River, assess their views on their likely participation in river tourism, and identify problems they thought might inhibit tourism development. The results show that while respondents were generally supportive of tourism development, they did recognise the need for river ecosystem restoration and the need to change many of the ways they currently use the river.

Community preparedness in ecotourism development and their role in maintaining natural resources is necessary. Yet, many examples throughout the world suggest that local communities are unable to participate in development of ecotourism and maintaining natural resources. A preliminary study was carried out to identify the preparedness of local communities in ecotourism, as well as to determine the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) that effect the preparedness of local communities. Sociological interviews was a recommend networking as the determining the factor. This paper aims to assess the potential of ecotourism in the Kadamaian area and the preparedness in development of ecotourism by the local community. We focused on evaluating the relationship between environment impact and ecotourism by the local community in terms of sustainable tourism development, which can provide an insight in future management for government, stakeholders and managers. This preliminary study shows that local communities are highly prepared in ecotourism development and inmaintaining natural resources, and the result could assist them in conserving natural resources.

Background: People benefit from the recreational services provided by an urban corridor, urban park, and urban forest. Due to ongoing land-use interest and urban development, however, these natural environments are coming under increasing pressure. Simultaneously, the world is becoming increasingly urbanised, and living in cities has been linked to mental health issues. On the other hand, different natural environments are known to create healthier environments, and the need for effective restorative environments has never been greater. The purpose of the study was to compare the impacts of walking in different natural environments. Methods: I) Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve, II) Mutiara Damansara Recreational Park, and III) the Urban Green Corridor along Jalan PJU 7/2 were used as control study sites in this study. Each site was visited only once by the study participants (40 women and 40 men). Walking for 30 min was a part of the experiment. To identify the psychological effects of different natural environments, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS21), Profile of Mood States (POMS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and Restoration Outcome Scale (ROS) were utilised. Results: In all three natural environments, the restorative effects were found to increase significantly. Conclusion: The overall conclusion of the field experiment is that being in an urban green corridor can also provide a refreshing environment. In terms of stress reduction among working adults, the recreational park is sufficient, while urban-forested areas are more effective in improving mental health by minimising stress, anxiety, and depression.

The Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is widely used in many fields of study as it produces simple and straightforward results. However, it is rarely used by managers of ecotourism and urban green spaces. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was adopted from a destination perspective to understand industry demand. This study explores the visitors’ satisfaction level on ecotourism attributes i.e. attraction, urban green spaces and accessibility that affect tourist satisfaction towards Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia using IPA scheme. A total of 384 tourists to Kota Kinabalu were provided with a list of environmental features and asked to rate the importance of and satisfaction with each attribute. IPA was performed to compare mean scores and identify areas of concern. The analysis identified eight (8) attributes which were applauded with excellent performance on highly important features and should maintain its competitiveness as a tourist destination. Six (6) attributes resulted under the poor performance on an extremely important category; indicates the areas that should be given improvement interventions, while four (4) attributes were identified as possible overkill that implies divergences of resources elsewhere are needed. Finally, six (6) attributes faired as low in priority and effort may not be necessary on those features. Although six (6) out of 24 attributes were found to be less advantageous, an interview simultaneously conducted during the survey however found that 97% of respondents perceived that Kota Kinabalu city has the potential as an Urban Ecotourism destination. This study resulted in some findings for those at managerial level to pursue and areas that should be improved as it provides a greater understanding on the Urban Ecotourism potential in Kota Kinabalu industry, by using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) tool as it facilitates the interpretation of data. This study fosters that ecotourism product does exist in Kota Kinabalu city, and steer the industry towards sustainable development in urban centres.

This research examined the psychological (perceived restoratives, emotion, stress, and mood) and physiological (blood pressure readings) effects of short-range visits to urban environments. Ninety participants visited two urban areas; Bukit Jalil Urban Park (a green space) and Bukit Jalil Urban Street (an urban a built-up city centre as a controlled environment) located in a tropical city Kuala Lumpur. Participants took a 20-minute leisure walk along the given routes in both the study areas. The findings indicate that the urban park has had an overall rehabilitative impact in contrast to the built-up environment. Overall, the positive emotion has increased, and mood disturbance has decreased in the metropolitan green area after the field experiment. The findings demonstrate that even short-term visits to urban parks decidedly influence stress reduction compared to an urban built-up city centre. However, both systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased insignificantly after walking in the park. Similar variables such as their mental and physiological measures on other urban societies (i.e., working adults, population with hypertension, and their encounters) concerning the effect of a short walk with green ecology should be studied further.

The authors systematically reviewed peer-reviewed studies done with LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) technology, guided by three research questions: (a) What types of studies have been conducted, and with which populations, since the launch of LENA technology? (b) What challenges related to use of LENA technology were identified? (c) What are the implications for practice and future research using LENA technology? Electronic databases, the LENA Research Foundation website, and bibliographies of already-included studies were searched; 38 studies were identified. The authors selected studies on the basis of purpose, design, participant characteristics, application of LENA technology, and results. They found that LENA technology was used with a range of populations to yield a variety of information. Though challenges and limitations are associated with LENA technology, great potential exists for further research and a resultant increase in evidence-based understanding of early language development and interventions on its behalf.

Greenspaces are central to the success of cities. However, what is normally found while walking in local parks or greenspaces are empty cans, bottles, food wrappers and other litters that ruin the aesthetic beauty of the site. Increase in the number of visitors visiting parks in Malaysia has resulted in a growing littering problem. Some parks even received numerous complaints regarding litter. In order to understand the problem of littering in parks, a study was conducted with the objective of identifying factors influencing peoples’ littering behaviour in Pantai Temasya Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia. A total of 178 set of questionnaires were distributed to visitors at Pantai Temasya Bintulu, Sarawak, which is a popular recreational park in Bintulu. Data collected was encoded into the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and analysed accordingly. The study found more male (61.8%) than female (38.2%) respondents have done littering in the past. While more Chinese (73.1%) respondents admitted to littering than any other races. With regards to marital status, singles (64.2%) and those without children (64.4%) top the list for littering. Respondents of the age group of 17 to 25-year-old (70.6%) recorded a high percentage for littering as compared to other age groups. Respondents with only a primary school (66.7%) education have a higher tendency to litter. Besides, jobless adults and students also dominated the chart for littering for the occupation profile. Parallel with that, the income group which those without any source of income (65.3%) was the highest to admit to littering. The study identified attitude to be the highest factor influencing littering among visitors with nearly 65% respondents agreeing to it. Meanwhile, beverage containers such as aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles were found to be the type of litter most frequently found in Pantai Temasya Bintulu. Studies on public perception towards littering are essential for administrative and strategic planning of litter control. In the case of Pantai Temasya Bintulu, early education and awareness campaigns are seen to be the best approach to instil good attitudes among the visitors.

We conducted a multi-disciplinary research to develop a forest therapy program that could manage academic stress in students. The first part of the study comprised of a survey to develop a forest therapy program based on the expectations of students, and involved 412 students aged 19–24 years (21.73 ± 2.33 years). The second part was a field study to determine the sustained effects the forest therapy program had on the blood pressure of students, involving twenty-nine students aged 21–23 years (21.83 ± 0.711). The survey determined that students were suffering from academic stress but their fear of societal stigma prevented them from seeking assistance. The majority (57.26%) expressed interest in forest therapy, and wanted a half-day forest therapy program during the weekend. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure were used as measurement indices for the field study, and was conducted before breakfast, lunch and dinner. Readings were taken 3 days before (baseline values), during, 3, 5 and 7 days after the forest therapy program. The blood pressure reading 3 days prior to the program served as a representation of the participants’ every blood pressure levels. When compared to the everyday blood pressure levels (124/81 mmHg), both the SBP and DBP significantly decreased during the forest therapy (117/77 mmHg), and the decrement maintained 3 days (114/77 mmHg) and 5 days after (118/79 mmHg). There was no significant decrease in blood pressure between the everyday levels and 7 days after. In conclusion, a half-day forest therapy program is able to decrease students’ SBP and DBP, and the decrements were maintained for 5 days. The exit survey reaffirmed the blood pressure results, whereby the participants believed that forest therapy had reduced their stress.