Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A study at Malacca world heritage site
H.S. Fatin
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
A.S. Amirah & N.O. Khairani
Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: The study aims to explore the perceptions of tourist both foreigner and local in term
of cultural, experience and environment towards responsible tourism. The role of the government in
implementing responsible tourism in Malacca as endorsed by UNESCO for world heritage site will be
explored as well. The theoretical framework developed in this study comprised of cultural, experience and
environment as independent variables, responsible tourism as dependent variable and government as the
moderator. An analysis was conducted based on the questionnaire developed for 200 local and foreigner
tourist who visit Malacca world heritage site. A hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.
The results revealed that the government did not play an important role as a moderator in developing
responsible tourism among the tourist. Tourists also perceived that cultural and environments were two
important variables in responsible tourism while experience was not the indicator in describing respon-
sible tourism. In conclusion, in order to improve the perception of tourist towards responsible tourism,
the government needs to highlight their roles in terms of managing responsible tourism among tourist.
Interpretations of results, implications and future research were also discussed.
Keywords
:
Malacca world heritage site, perception, responsible tourism, tourist attitude
1 INTRODUCTION
Therefore, the main objective of this study
was to investigate the perception of tourists both
local and foreigner's perception towards responsi-
ble tourism at the Malacca Heritage Site and also
to identify the role of government of Malacca
towards responsible tourism.
Responsible tourism has become an important
aspect with the emergence of sustainable tourism
and as consumers shift towards lifestyle market-
ing and ethical marketing and ethical consumption
(Goodwin & Francis, 2003). Responsible tourist
behavior is complex, dynamic and multi-faceted
and their expectations are varying (Bramwell &
Lane, 2008). In addition, the lack of responsibil-
ity and careless packaging of tourism destinations
as mass tourism can be damaging to the tourism
industry in the long run. Therefore, it is crucial to
investigate the tourists' perception towards respon-
sible tourism in terms of their understanding of
the concept of responsible tourism, culture, experi-
ence and environment.
Past studies showed that most of the studies were
done on heritage sites benefit the Western coun-
tries. Since Malacca was awarded by UNESCO as
world heritage site recently, a study is needed to
investigate on the responsible tourism within the
Malaysian context. This study was also been done
since no research has been done lately regarding
this topic.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Responsible tourism
European commission (2003) had stated that sus-
tainable tourism is a tourism that is economically
and socially viable without detracting from the
environment and local culture. Responsible tour-
ism not only attempts to not harm, but it is also
strives to contribute the general wellbeing of local
people, the tourist and the places visited.
Langen (2006) mentioned that there are an
increasing number of publications and emergence
of tour operators and travel agents in the respon-
sible tourism segment. Goodwin et al. (2001) men-
tioned that government and the private sector are
committed to work in partnership with the people
of South Africa to develop and market tourism
Search WWH ::
Custom Search