commodities mainly rubber, palm oil and petroleum
products (Stecker, 1996). In the 1970’s, the government
began the development of the manufacturing industry to
expand the country’s economy. During the 1980s tourism
became an important industry in Malaysia, especially due
to an increase in international travel (Stecker, 1996). In
the mid 1980’s, the economic recession made the
government to give a high priority to the development of
the tourism industry. Tourism was identified as a potential
industry that could encourage the socio-economic
development of Malaysia as a provider of foreign
exchange earnings, and employment opportunities. The
effort of the government in promoting the tourism industry
was manifested by the establishment of the Ministry of
Culture, Arts and Tourism in 1987. Later on in 2004, this
ministry was restructured into three ministries; the
Ministry of Tourism is one of them which were assigned
to coordinate and implement government policies and
strategies to tourism development. As a results, total
tourist arrivals increased dramatically especially in 1990
and thereafter (Munan, 2002) (Table 1).
As it was mentioned earlier, agriculture has played a
significant part in the development of this country and
continues to make a significant contribution to the
national economy. However structural changes in the
Malaysian economy have brought new issues in the
agricultural sector. Hence, the government encouraged
agri-tourism among rural people as a new tourism
concept. The Malaysian government, through the 9
Malaysian Plan, has opened opportunities for farmers to
expand and diversify agricultural products and their
related industries, such as agri-tourism. The importance
of local participation in tourism was also stressed in the 7
Malaysian Plans 1996 to 2000 (Government of Malaysia,
1996). As a result, agri-tourism is gaining popularity
dramatically in Malaysia, since this country has plenty of