Examining the Trade-Offs of Visiting Fee Rises to National Parks, Sabah, Malaysia

Sabah’s scenic National Parks and off-shore islands have drawn in substantial revenues from local and foreign visitors. In November 2021, Sabah’s National Parks authority announced the increase in admission fees by 50% to locals and 250% to international visitors; the cited reason was attributed to rising conservancy cost. This chapter examines the trade-off effects resulting from fee hikes justified by getting higher income from fewer visitors and the need for nature conservation by cutting down ecological footprints. In support of this rationale, we provide reference to the issues of carrying capacity, environmental justice and governance as the basis whether visitors should be restricted in numbers. While setting the optimal visitor number is seen to be debatable as the carrying capacity construct with technical assumptions tends to invite critique of the concept, we see there is also a tension between conservation and tourism development goals and the inherently complex conflict of interests among stakeholders. Conflict resolution should be a balance between scientific research findings about conservation and a wider political consensus involving stakeholders.