UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA FACULTY OF HOTEL AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT

TRAVEL AND TOUR AGENCY MANAGEMENT (HTT454)

REVIEW OF JOURNAL: CULTURAL TOURISM IN MALAYSIA IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN TOURISTS: A STUDY

29 OCTOBER 2013

For the past decade, tourists from India have shown an incline ever since the year 2002 (Tourism Malaysia, 2009). India also has been identified as one of the top 10 countries that contributed to Malaysias inbound tourism market. Indian tourists alone over the last few years have generated substantially to Malaysian Tourism in terms of revenue (Kiran, Kumar & George, 2010). However, the main reason for those Indian tourists to come to Malaysia is still in a blur. Due to this, a study is done to comprehend how Malaysias historical resources develop the tourist demand from India and also, to identify the potential of Malaysia to be a cultural tourism destination based on the feedback of the tourists from India. As a result, the numbers of the Indian tourists came to Malaysia for cultural visit receive the votes below than 25% from the 144 correspondents. The reason for such result is because those tourists are lacking on information on cultural or historical attractions of Malaysia. The respondents also think that there is not enough promotion done by tourism authorities in Malaysia (Kiran, Kumar & George, 2010). However, they are quite satisfied with the cultural sites that they have visited and most of the respondents did mention that Malaysia has the potential to be a cultural site for tourism activities. Taking the result as a reference, I too believe that not many of the tourists, even the locals, are very much familiar of the heritages and attractions in Malaysia. According to Eliot and Bickersteth (2002), Malaysias main area for activities in leisure and recreation tourism which includes entertainment, beach and island, adventure and sports and rural tourism in the form of homestays programmes that it offers extensively throughout the country. Thus, more measures need to be done by certain authorities in order to influence tourists from all around the world to be more interested in a cultural tourism in Malaysia. In the article, it is stated that apart from the main areas of tourism practiced in Malaysia, cultural attractions are equally significant in creating the destination image of Malaysia (Green and George, 2009). Even the Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines said that tourists were attracted to Malaysia because of its natural beauty, rich cultural heritage and friendliness of the people, adding that this left a good impression on tourists (The Star; Datuk Seri Ibrahim Saad, 2012). However, since the tourists are not initially familiar with the image of Malaysia, all tourism development office in every state in Malaysia could provide them with a free travel map. Those travel maps can be obtain in an easy access location such as at the information counter in

airport, provided by the tourist guide or be given during the flight by the flight attendance for reading and getting to know of the cultural attraction in Malaysia. The maps should also be provided with pictures and a brief of the locations so that the tourist may have a little knowledge of such place and will trigger their curiosity of that place thus, they will tend to visit those places to fulfill their knowledge thirst. In fact, the exposure to culture and heritage should have already been introduced during the early age. An exchange student program can ultimately help for the youth to know and understand the culture of others. Student exchanges programs provide visiting young people with a deep and meaningful introduction to other countries life, culture, and institutions thus providing them with methods to communicate across cultures and develop critical thinking and leadership skills to last a lifetime (International Development and Exchange Programs, 2012). Believably, that the student exchange program may contribute a bundle of knowledge about other communitys culture. As the youth grew, they may spread those knowledge with a word to mouth methods to inform others of the valuable experience they have earned by living with people of different culture and different lifestyle. Notably, in the past decade, Tourism Malaysia has taken lot of efforts to promote Malaysia to the world (Mohamed, 2008) and it is proven from the success of Malaysia Truly Asia campaign which the campaign has manage to attract a lot of tourists from all around the world to come and visit Malaysia. Since the campaign was implemented, Malaysia has seen its annual tourists trebling, from 7 million people in 1999 to more than 22 million visitors in the year 2008 (Branding Malaysia as Truly Asia, 2009).Not to mention that Malaysia also has been ranked ninth in the United Nations World Tourism Organisations (UNWTO) list of 10 most visited countries, with 24.6 million international tourist arrivals in 2010 (The Star, 2012). Due to this results, I believe that the upcoming campaign which is Visit Malaysia 2014 would be just as a great success as the Malaysia Truly Asia campaign. As stated during the Visit Malaysia 2014 promotion at Manila, Philippine, the campaign will contribute to Malaysia's target to receive 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion receipts by 2020, as outlined in the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP) 2020 (Felizardo, 2013). Thus, with those targets, undoubtedly that Malaysia will become the one of the fastest growing tourism country in the future that promotes not only the cultural and historical value, but also variety of entertainment and attractions that are one of a kind in this world.

REFERENCES 1. Eliot, J., Bickerseth, J., (2002) Malaysia Handbook: The Travel Guide. Kuala Lumpur. Footprint. 2. Branding Malaysia as Truly Asia. (2009), The Lab Brand. Accessed from http://www.labbrand.com/brand-source/branding-malaysia-truly-asia on 27 October 2013. 3. Felizardo, J.C., (2013), Visit Malaysia 2014, The Campaign Arm of Tourism Malaysia. Retrieve October 26, 2013, at http://www.gastronomybyjoy.com/2013/. 4. Green, E.K., Babu, G.P. (2009), Major determinants of intre-regional tourism demand for Malaysia: A study, International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems, 2(1), pp.35-46. 5. International Professional, Academic, and Cultural Exchanges Overview, (2012). Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.worldlearning.org/program-areas 6. Malaysia is ninth most visited in the world in UNWTO list. (2012), The Star. February 7, 2012, from http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/ 7. Mohamed, B. (2008) Image of Malaysia as a destination: A review, TRC Tourism Review, 1(1), pp.17-26. 8. Sudipta, K.S., Sarat, K.L., Babu, & G.P. (2010). Cultural Tourism In Malaysia In The Perspective Of Indian Tourists: A Study. Journal of tourism, vol. 10(10), pages 48-53, December. 9. *** (2009) Tourism Malaysia, The Official Website of Malaysian Tourism. Last accessed from www.tourism.gov.my on 27 October 2013.