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Abstract. The Kinabalu Park in Sabah (Malaysian-Borneo) represents multiple tourism opportunities for its stakeholders, host communities and tourists. Being the first World Heritage Site in Malaysia endorsed by UNESCO since 2000, this nature-based tourism destination is a popular tourism destination in Malaysia, as well as in the Asia region. The designated study area includes villages nearby Kinabalu Park. Through the popularity of the park and various other attractions within the area, tourism activities contributes to socio-cultural impacts towards its host communities. The perceptions and attitudes of the locals towards tourism are identified and evaluated. By having the input of host communities as part of conserving tourism whilst meeting certain principles of sustainable tourism, the paper aims to attain interesting findings about the perceptions of the host communities towards socio-cultural impacts of tourism on their community. The paper further aims to recommend for the continuous improvement of sustainable tourism development at Kinabalu Park and its surroundings.

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Mobile payment has become ubiquitous worldwide. It is a form of digital payment activity performed on-site from a mobile device (i.e. smartphone) for the purchase of goods and services using QR or NFC (contactless and proximity card) technology. This study examines destination stakeholders’ level of engagement and involvement in facilitating mobile payments (e.g., AliPay and WeChat Pay) for Chinese tourists. Sabah (Malaysian-Borneo), a popular island destination in Southeast Asia, was selected as the study site. Using a qualitative approach, 25 tourism and hospitality industry practitioners participated in a semi-structured, in-depth interview between February to July 2020. Preliminary results revealed that industry practitioners had been actively seeking to implement mobile payment facilities since late-2017, specifically in the retail sector, as they felt the pressure in accommodating the needs of Chinese tourists. This study offers insights into how industry practitioners address local consumers’ shift in payment usage-behaviours; from traditional forms of payments (e.g., cash and credit card) to mobile payments in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.