Abstract—Tourism destinations should not depend too much on their natural resources alone nowadays. They should manage their natural resources creatively without compromising with the environment. Creativity and innovation are becoming key elements to attract visitors to a destination in this era. The main concern of this research is to examine creativity and innovation elements used by Malaysian outdoor recreation stakeholders and market players for their activities. Mixed methods were applied to get an in depth understanding about t h i s novel topic. Secondary data taken from related literature on this topic were presented for this preliminary study stage. The results of the initial phase of the study indicate t h a t the outdoor recreation development i n Kedah is significantly limited, while in Pahang there are areas for improvement and in Selangor future development need more creative approaches. In general creativity is still lacking relating to the activities and marketing aspects in outdoor recreation. I. INTRODUCTION Outdoor recreation has become an important agenda for tourists when they visit tourism destinations. It is also an important leisure activity for local community nowadays. In addition the awareness of the general public on the good impact of outdoor recreation to a healthy lifestyle has caused significant increases in the demand of outdoor recreation activities and facilities [1]. The general understanding about outdoor recreation applies to physical activity in natural and wilderness areas, but it is now being applied to urban areas [2]. Refer [3] broadly defined outdoor recreation as any leisure time activity conducted outdoors. They categorised outdoor recreation from softsuch as gardening and picnicking to extreme such as para gliding and 4x4W off-road driving activities. Depending on the space and place, outdoor recreation can take place almost anywhere and the cost varies. Though natural resources are important, a destination should not be too dependent on their natural resources only. Creativity and innovation elements are becoming significantly important in today’s market because a destination with fewer natural resources can use creativity and innovation to attract more tourists than destinations that have many natural resources. Countries such as Maldives, Singapore and United Arab Emirates are some of the destinations that have limited natural resources but managed to attract influx number of tourists [4]. Conceivably, it is good economics and practice for tourism destinations to have a combination of both creativity and natural resources to expand the market significantly. This study will examine the role of creativity in enhancing visitors’ experience in outdoor recreation activities in a developing country, in this case, Malaysia. This topic is worth looking at due to its novelty and the importance of outdoor recreation activities towards modern healthy lifestyle. Further, because of globalization a visitor destination needs to offer products that are different, globally recognized and yet unique to attract the visitors [5]. Based on that notion this study will discuss mainly findings from the first phase of this study relating to the role of creativity for the outdoor recreation visitors. II. NATURE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT There is a significant demand for ecological and environmental tourism attraction [5] for more than a decade ago. In this era, nature areas are becoming significantly important for their co logical and social function [6]. Nature tourism activities such as ecotourism and agro tourism have becoming the latest tourism products and niche market in this industry in Europe, outdoor recreation has been the preferred activities to broaden their travel horizons [7]. According [8] found that 26 percent of travelers were engaged in adventure activities on vacation and valued international adventure tourism which mostly involve nature and outdoor activities. Adventure, as a way of travel, is increasingly appealing to travelers, allowing for a deeper cultural exchange with different people and an appreciation for the fragility of places, and is more often viewed as a “guilt- free” holiday option given that money spent can penetrate more deeply into communities, contributing to local economies [8]. Popular destinations for nature tourism spread almost evenly all over the world compared to other types of tourism activities and attractions where normally developed countries monopolise the market. Hence, Malaysia has substantial potential to tap this market based on their rich natural resources which are suitable for outdoor recreation activities. A report by [9] in National Ecotourism Plan Preliminary Study on the Role of Creativity in Outdoor Recreation Activities towards Enhancing Visitors’ Experience in Malaysia Siti Suriawati Isa and Azlizam Aziz 508 DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2014.V4.408 Index Terms—Creativity, Malaysia, outdoor recreation, visitors’ experience. Manuscript received October 3, 2013; revised December 1, 2013. The authors are with the Department of Recreation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia (e-mail: ssuria4@gmail.com) International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 4, No. 6, November 2014