200 Spiritual Tourism Experts To Converge In Malaysia's Sabah, June 2017

KOTA KINABALU (Sabah, Malaysia), Aug 9 (Bernama) -- Some 200 experts in spiritual tourism will converge in east Malaysian state Sabah for the first ever International Conference on Spirituality, Culture and Sustainable Tourism (SCST2017) next year. Organised jointly by the Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) Sabah, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM, a Malaysian public university) Sabah branch and Universiti Sains Malaysia (Science University of Malaysia), the event will be held for two days from June 1, 2017. Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Dr Maximus Ongkili who is also KDCA deputy president, at a press conference on Thursday, said the event was meant to conserve the local communities' traditions and culture. "It is aimed at introducing the new field of spiritual tourism studies in relation to sustainable development and at providing a forum for global research collaboration and mentoring." He said the programme was also aimed at exploring spiritual and ecological tourism products, services and processes, besides gaining knowledge from the last custodians of indigenous knowledge. Themed 'Spiritually, Culture and Sustainable Tourism', the conference is also organised in conjunction with the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017, which hopes to provide a platform for tourism industry players, researchers, academicians and stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry to present and discuss their knowledge and findings on the subject. According to Ongkili, the conference dates had been set to coincide with the state Kaamatan (Harvest) Festival to enable the delegates to observe the Kadazandusun (the term assigned to the unification of the classification of two indigenous peoples of Sabah)'s unique cultural heritage presentations and rituals of honouring the 'bambarayon' (rice spirit) and celebrate with a thanksgiving feast for the year's harvest. For more details, contact KDCA Youth Council vice-chair (Education), Tania Maria Tangit at 019-6663086 or e-mail to conference@kdca.org.my / KDCA.Conference@gmail.com. --BERNAMA