ABSTRACT
Langkawi was endorsed as a Geopark in 2007. It was then the first global Geopark in Southeast Asia. In 2015, it officially became known as Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark. As a Geopark, it has the opportunity to apply the concept of geotourism in what we perceive to be educational and sustainable tourism, thereby, bringing Langkawi tourism to another height with new products and interest. Langkawi in the past has always promoted itself as a nature-based tourism and ecotourism. However, as a duty-free island, it also attracted a sizeable number of visitors, mainly from the domestic front. Its popularity as an island holiday destination saw brisk physical development in terms of transport infrastructure and tourism related development such as hotels and accommodation, commercial complexes, and restaurants. The measure of progress in tourism has always been indicated by the number of visitor arrivals. Hence, mass tourism is the order of the day to a point of overtourism. In whatever form and terminology, the fact remains that the increasing number of visitors when uncontrolled and unregulated brings with it sustainability issues in various areas of the ecosystem related to overdevelopment, namely environment, waste disposal, electricity, and water supply. This write-up seeks to discuss the issues of conflict and balance between mass tourism, overtourism, and Geopark tourism, specifically geotourism and what the outlook of Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark could preferably be.
