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Melaka especially in Jasin and Alor Gajah district.
This distinction caused the tourists lack of aware-
ness about the Malay cultural heritage in Melaka.
Therefore, this research is conducted to identify
the hidden Malay cultural heritage attraction in
Melaka. This paper highlighted the preliminary
evaluation towards the prospect of Malay cultural
heritage that is located in Melaka.
Figure 1. Example of the tangible and intangible herit-
age (Source: http://whc.unesco.org).
2 METHODOLOGY
being preserved until today. Meanwhile, Tombs
of the Buganda Kings at Kasubi, Uganda, Royal
Ancestral Rite and Ritual Music of the Jongmyo
Shrine at Republic of Korea and water puppetry in
Vietnam are examples of intangible cultural herit-
age that remained until today (Park, 2011). Thus,
tourism sector creates an opportunity to the inter-
national and domestic tourists to understand and
appreciate the cultural heritage that are still being
preserved and practiced until today.
The objective of this study is to have a prelimi-
nary evaluation towards the prospects of Malay
cultural heritage that is located in Melaka, a state
that is rich with multicultural heritages. Thus, a
qualitative method is being used as to achieve the
objective of the study. In order to have general
information regarding to the current trends of
Malay cultural heritage in Melaka, interview ses-
sions were conducted with two stakeholders from
the National Heritage Department South Zone
(Malaysia) and three practitioners of Malay cul-
tural heritage in Melaka. The sample chosen are
based on previous research conducted (see: Chen,
2013; Rahman, 2012). They used representative
from the local authority and individual or group
that is involved in the heritage industry. Besides
that, the information about Malay entrepreneurs
was obtained from the National Department for
Culture and Arts, Melaka (2013) and a source for
a research by Khairul (2012, December 3).
An appointment was then made by the inter-
viewees through email and phone calls. The in-
depth interview was applied to access the current
information and scenario regarding the Malay
cultural heritage in Melaka. The researchers used
an informal approach during the interview because
it is more flexible and comfortable for both inter-
viewers and interviewees (Chen, 2013). In addition,
observation method is also being used to explore
the Malay cultural heritages that are available in
the three districts of Melaka namely Melaka Ten-
gah, Jasin and Alor Gajah. Finally, to evaluate the
findings from the secondary and primary data col-
lected from the Malay cultural heritage expertise,
a SWOT analysis have been used. This method
has been used widely in numbers of fields, namely
urban planning, counselling psychology, business
and tourism (Kam, 2013). This tool is the most
frequently used for the purpose of analysing the
business environment (Glaister & Falshaw, 1999)
and it helps in verdict the crucial factors of a future
plan (Nikolaou, Ierapetritis & Tsagarakis, 2011).
A SWOT analysis is a combination of strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Therefore,
this study applied a SWOT analysis in order to
have a preliminary understanding of the Malay
1.3
The Malay cultural heritage in Melaka
In Malaysia, UNESCO inscribed Pulau Pinang
and Melaka as World Heritage Site in the year
2008, among the reason because of their cultural
heritage. Among these heritage sites, Melaka is
significant with Malay cultural heritage because
the Empire of Melaka Sultanate begins in the
year 1261 (Yaakob, 2013). Since then, Melaka
has become the Malay Kingdom with Melaka
River plays a significant role as the core of trad-
ing and administrative center of the 14th century.
The Malay cultural heritage in Melaka is classified
into tangible and intangible heritage. The Malay
tangible heritage includes monuments, traditional
villages and buildings. On the other hand, Malay
intangible cultural heritage is batik printing, rattan
weaving, wood carving, traditional food, martial
art weapons, song and dance.
Preliminary investigation reveals that, some
original location of palace, a mosque and fortress
related to the Malay heritage in Melaka could
not be found. During that time timber is used for
building construction and it is easily broken. Fur-
thermore, the destruction of historical buildings by
the colonialist namely Portuguese, Dutch and Brit-
ish caused the buildings of the Malay Sultanate
Empire could not be discovered (Yaakob, 2013).
Besides, there are not much of the intangible cul-
tural heritage of the Malay community in Melaka
have been exposed to the tourists. The reason being,
the Melaka world heritage site mainly stands with
its architectural and historical buildings that repre-
sent the colonialist history. In contrast, the Malay
cultural heritages are located scattered within
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