PROMOTING THE SABANG–PHUKET–LANGKAWI TOURISM BELT UNDER THE IMT-GT SUBREGIONAL COOPERATION FRAMEWORK

The subregional cooperation of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand Growth Triangle involves five economic corridors. The Ranong–Phuket–Aceh Economic Corridor or EC5 is one of the five corridors involving the tourism industry. EC5 is predominantly a maritime corridor connecting Northern Sumatra and Southwestern Thailand with the aim of exploiting tourism potential. Unfortunately, Sabang in Aceh has no significant maritime connection with Phuket. Instead, Phuket has an existing cruise line connection with Langkawi in Malaysia. However, Malaysia is not included in the EC5. The inclusion of Langkawi in the corridor will exploit the potential of the cruise tourism industry between Sabang and Phuket. Langkawi is on the international cruise line route along the Straits of Malacca. Langkawi island could be a new link to create the Sabang–Phuket–Langkawi (SAPHULA) Tourism Belt or Marine Tourism Triangle. This study investigated the SAPHULA corridor’s potential impact on Langkawi, particularly Sabang’s cruise tourism industry, and maritime tourism in general. Findings indicate that the proposed connectivity between Sabang and Langkawi is more government-driven while a private-public collaboration is crucial for the fruition of the SAPHULA tourism belt.