The Beautiful Land of Borneo Island

Bario is located in Kelabit Highlands, 3280 feet above sea level. Due to this geographical barrier, this wonderful place is isolated from the rest of the world. The main activity in Bario is agriculture. The cool climate with an average 20°C in Bario enables the residents to cultivate citrus fruits (oranges), coffee and sugarcane. However, Bario rice is the most popular and significant agricultural product. Other well-known products include high-potassium Bario-made salt and the refreshing, juicy Bario pineapple.

About four years ago, there were neither telephones nor reliable electricity. There are also no paved roads in Bario. Today, Bario is adopting information and communication technologies (ICTs) through a research project that is carried out by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas). The main objective of ‘eBario’, the name given to the project, is to bring ICTs to the Bario community. Unimas secured about RM600, 000 for the research from Demonstrator Application Grants Scheme (DAGS) and a grant of USD53, 000 from the Canadian government’s International Development Research Council (IDRC) (eBario, 2001).

After two years’ effort, technology has been successfully brought into Bario and employed by the people in Bario. The research team set up a Telecentre and four Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite communication systems. The Telecenter is where the residents can have the access to computers and even the Internet. The implementation of the Telecentre and VSAT allows them to communicate with other people all over the world via email and telephone. Besides improving communication, ICT can also provide another alternative for boosting tourist industry in Bario that is through eTourism.

“eTourism is about using Internet technologies to transform the way key tourism activities are conducted. The developments in information communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet in particular, have revolutionized the tourism industry as a whole, generating new business models, altering the structure of tourism distribution channels, and re-engineering almost all tourism-related processes.” (eTourism, 2003)

With the introduction of eTourism, tourists can retrieve information easily and fast. They are able to view information of most of the tourist spots throughout the world as long as they are able to access internet.

Therefore, a tourism website, as a part of the eBario project is to be built to promote Bario as another attractive tourist destination in Malaysia. It is believed that residents of Bario will benefit from eTourism. Tourists from all over the world can obtain Bario tourism information easily from this website. Therefore, the promotion of Bario will be more efficient and effective by implementing the website as it complements the conventional way, which is distributing brochure and leaflet in the tourist information centre.

The eBario tourism website is built using dynamic map-based solution which enables the user to locate and zoom down to a specific area in Bario. This function enables the user to have a clearer and more concise view of the place they want to go. Moreover, this tourism website will also be maintained and used by the Bario community. The resident of Bario could constantly update the content of the website. For example, if there is any special event held in Bario, announcement and new updates can be made immediately. Therefore, the information provided by the website is more complete and up-to-date since it does not need to go through a middleman.

With this tourism website, Bario community can have another type of economic activity which is tourism. By bringing in tourism to Bario, it is believe that the living standard of the Bario people can be improved and the Kelabits can preserve their cultures. The major activity and attraction in Bario is trekking. Thus, if there is tourism activity, the natural environments will be reserved and preserved to attract tourists to visit the place. Also, existence of tourists will create more job and business opportunities in Bario such as tour guides, porters, providing accommodation and facilities to tourists, producing and selling souvenirs to tourists.