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Access to Pulau Payar is strictly through tour operators who provide the boat transportation services. Langkawi Saga Travel and Tours has been given a special privilege by the Fisheries department to ferry tourists from Langkawi and Penang to their exclusive private pontoon where their clients disembark. A transfer boat is provided for those who want to go to the beach area, or the Park Center. Besides the Langkawi Saga, many other small licensed operators ply either from Langkawi, Kuala Kedah or Penang to the island. However, they can only ferry their clients to the jetty provided by the Fisheries Department. In order for the study to capture tourists in both areas (beach and pontoon), three trips were made using a small operator from Kuala Kedah to Pulau Payar in late April, while 2 other trips were made using the special service provided by Langkawi Saga in May.

Enumerators

A total of 30 enumerators, mainly Universiti Utara Malaysia students and staff, conducted the interviews. Among them, a special service from five Japanese Language teachers, four Mandarin- and Hokkien-speaking students and a French-speaking lecturer were employed to overcome the language barrier likely to be faced with Japanese-, Chinese- and French-speaking respondents. The enumerators went through a training session prior to their work, including mock interviews and a series of role plays in order to familiarize them with proper human relations in an interview setting.

Sample Size

A total of 587 respondents, including 78 from the pilot survey, voluntarily participated in the survey. Thus, the sample is approximately 0.7% of the total annual number of visitors (83,246 visitors in 1999) to Pulau Payar. This sample size is adequate considering the size of the population (Sekaran, 1992: 253). A previous study at Pulau Payar by Bee (1998) had used a sample size of 209.

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