Hiking Tourism in Malaysia: Origins, Benefits and Post Covid-19 Transformations

Abstract

Recreational hiking tourism in ecotourism or nature-based sites is associated with a range of individual health effect outcomes. Although these outcomes have been extensively studied, there is little narration in the academic literature about the investigation on hiking. Hiking is one of the popular ecotourism activities in Malaysia that immerse with nature and is connected with health and wellness benefits. This paper review hiking tourism foundation, development and significant contributions in a growing array of relevant publications, and it also discusses the future prospect of the sector on post Covid-19 pandemic. The review study traces down the hiking tourism evolution from origin to the transformation trend from the context of Malaysia. A total of 65 publications relevant to the present study were identified, as a result, this study anticipates six relevance and topicality in hiking tourism studies for the academic research. We concluded this study by having the discussion on trends and implications for governing bodies, hiking enthusiasts and future research. Keywords: Ecotourism, Hiking, Health, Wellness, Covid-19.