BACKPACKER TOURISM CIRCUIT IN KOTA KINABALU, SABAH

Kota Kinabalu is a well-known tourist destination in the Malaysian state of Sabah. This city serves as the beginning point for the majority of the Sabah state's tourism circuits. This research is focused on the backpacker tourist circuit of Kota Kinabalu. Furthermore, this study involves an analysis of backpacker tourist locations that may be promoted into visiting the various destinations in Sabah via tourist circuits. The study design employed is a survey approach with quantitative approaches as research tools. In this study, a total of 228 backpackers in Kota Kinabalu responded to the questionnaire. The study only involved backpackers originating from countries in continental Europe, North and South America and Oceania. ArcMap 10.8 was used to map the circuit that was discovered during the data processing. The study's findings revealed that the backpackers' tourist circuit in Kota Kinabalu is limited and significantly impacted by prominent attractions visited by mass tourists. This research also shows that there are several acceptable tourist locations in Kota Kinabalu's backpacker tourist circuit that may be grouped according to certain themes like cuisine tourism, educational tourism, ecotourism, mountaineering or hill climbing tourism. Overall, Kota Kinabalu's tourist sector offers tremendous growth potential for backpacker tourism, which may become the mainstay of the industry. As a result, the government and other stakeholders must do more to boost backpacker tourism in Kota Kinabalu.