USM, PENANG, 20 March 2016 – The Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster (STRC) Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) together with Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan recently organised an ‘International Symposium On Migration And Tourism Infrastructure In Global Cities’ here with the aim of sharing the research findings of the two universities.

According to the Cluster Head of STRC, Professor Dr. Badaruddin Mohamed, the symposium is meant to be an avenue for knowledge-sharing and where research outcomes are discussed concerning migration issues and which are closely-related to sustainable tourism.

“This symposium is being held for the first time in Malaysia and USM was selected to be the host as STRC USM is active in tourism research, while Rikkyo University is active in migration studies, therefore, it has resulted in the themes relating to tourism and migration,” said Badaruddin.

He said that, STRC has an active multi-disciplinary research team constantly looking at issues relating to sustainability from various aspects.

"STRC hopes to be a research centre for sustainable tourism this year," he further added.

In presenting his working paper, Badaruddin explained on the increase in the number of foreign workers, which would also occur as a result of migration.

The influx of foreign workers into Malaysia is an unhealthy phenomenon not only due to health issues, but also in relation to the issues of quality and authenticity of services which should be offered by Malaysians for the tourists, and not by foreign workers from other countries.

He added that, such a phenomenon is non-sustainable and need to be looked at more seriously. The symposium was attended by 58 participants. Among the presenters in the symposium were Professor Kazuaki Kurita, Professor Guoqing Du, Professor Tetsuo Mizukami and Mitsuko Ono from Rikkyo University.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Loh Mei Fang (USM Internship Student)