Finding value in a heritage landscape: The visitors’ perception study - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 559

4.4 Designation as a cultural heritage site
Under the National Heritage Act of 2005 (Malay-
sian Government, 2006), a place or an area hav-
ing significant value to the community or group
or the state can be nominated as a heritage land-
scape site. This place which has historical, cultural
and natural values could be proposed as a cultural
landscape site. The feedback that this research has
received regarding the heritage landscape site is
enough to suggest that this place must be declared
a national treasure.

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5 CONCLUSION

Indeed, the people's perception and awareness are
growing regarding the importance to protect Bukit
Melawati as a heritage site. Visitors are concerned
about heritage and wanted the place to be preserved
as effectively as possible. The potentials of Bukit
Melawati can be seen in terms of commercial and
tourism opportunities; whereby informal traders
operate their businesses and many foreign tourists
were eagerly taking photos to capture the unique
experience at the site. Although this is a posi-
tive trend towards promoting tourism in historic
places, care must also be taken to ensure that the
site's originality and uniqueness remain unchanged
in order to avoid people from harming it in terms
of vandalism, littering and so on. The people also
need to be educated in terms of understanding the
importance of working together in order to protect
the site from threats.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge the generous
support given by Universiti Teknologi MARA
(UiTM) from its RMI's Principal Investigator
Support Initative (PSI) grant in making this paper
possible.

REFERENCES

Akagawa, N. & Sirisrisak, T. 2008. Cultural landscapes
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