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receipts in 2015. That is to reach RM115 billion
and provide 2.7 million jobs (Tourism's New Drive,
2010).
Malaysia is expecting to achieve 36 million tour-
ist arrivals and RM 168 billion in tourism receipts
by 2020. The main attraction for the tourists is
Mother Nature, culture and heritage. The concept
of 'peace and quiet', 'slower pace of life', 'fresh
air', 'gentle' and relaxing are used to describe the
rural/countryside tourism (Tourism's New Drive,
2010). The Ministry of Tourism and Culture has
allocated a promotional budget that covers domes-
tic and international promotions, which include
participation in international tourism fairs, adver-
tising campaigns, sales missions and mega famil-
iarization programs every year. The reliance on
tourism as a tool for development is used by the
Malaysian government as the Ministry of Tour-
ism and Culture promotes the Homestay program
which involves mostly the rural, sub-urban com-
munity as well as small towns to offer their accom-
modation for the tourists.
loss of flora and fauna habitat and to make sure
the sustainability of the environment.
Besides that, small towns are often shown as a
place with many interpersonal relationship and
high in social capital. Social capital is a resource
or force that can influence the quality of life of a
community living environment. As explained by
Putnam (2000), social capital defined as the rela-
tionship between people characterized by trust,
norm, reciprocity that facilitate coordination and
cooperation for mutual goal. Courvisanos and
Martin (2005) said that by understanding the
forces that operate on small country towns, local
communities and governments will be better able to
develop actions and policies which can make these
towns be resilient, more viable and sustainable.
This study of small town in Malaysia contrib-
utes to the industry especially to the tourism plan-
ner as a comprehensive master plan in developing
small town as a tourism product. This research
also benefits the local authority in future planning
for the local town as a tourism destination, hence
enhance the local economy and improve the qual-
ity of community life.
Besides, this paper explores and adds-on the
knowledge of tourism sector in Malaysia in creat-
ing a new direction or a new aspect on promoting
our country locally as well as internationally. On the
other hand, the insight resulting from this research is
valuable as a beginning for other academic scholars
who wish to further investigate into small towns.
2.2
Small town issues in Malaysia
The impact of tourism planning and destination
definitely will go to the surrounding especially to the
surrounding community or local resident whether
negatively or positively. Nevertheless, local resident
support is essential to ensure long-term success in
tourism development. This is particularly impor-
tant because local community is the main player
of small town development and support the overall
small town. As Chandralal (2010) noted that it is
impossible to sustain tourism ata destination that
is not supported by the local people.
According to Tatoglu (2000), there were nega-
tive perception invoke of the community due to
the unstructured tourism planning, uncontrolled
constructions, increase of noise level, pollution,
and congestion. Mason (2000) supported this and
stated that the negative environment impacts which
are frequently highlighted include littering, over-
crowding, traffic congestion as well as pollution of
water and soil. Chandralal (2010) however men-
tioned that the most important benefit that the res-
idents felt had flowed from tourism were increased
employment opportunities, property values, image
of the city, appearance and infrastructure of the
city and improved pride as the residents.
Humans are the major force that changes the
condition of land on Earth. Consequently, land
transformation effects many of the planet' physi-
cal, chemical, and biological systems that impact
directly on humans. Thus, a critical challenge for
land use and management are to be study to over-
come the problems of haphazard uncontrolled
development, deteriorating environment quality,
3 RESEARCH PROBLEMS
This research is aimed at exploring the potential of
small towns in Malaysia as a sustainable tourism
product. The research issue concern includes the
host-community residents' attitudes toward tour-
ism. The sustainability of tourism development is
related to the host-community response and co-
operation. Therefore the strategies that need to be
included in the small towns tourism planning not
only comprise of the internal and external environ-
ment of the town but also the deep understanding
of the host-community.
i. The level of the availability of community
resources influences the quality of community
life.
ii. The social patterns in small town in-terms of
community bonding, bridging and linking give
impact on the sense of belonging of the place.
iii. Identifying the community values of the place
and determine the local intangible cultural
assets and uniqueness.
iv. The level of development of central business
area will influence the liveliness of the central
business area.
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