The purpose of the study is to determine whether culture and heritage tourism is a viable economic factor that could improve the living standards of the local communities in Kampong Raja, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia. Besut is a town in state of Tereng...
The purpose of the study is to determine whether culture and heritage tourism is a viable economic factor that could improve the living standards of the local communities in Kampong Raja, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia. Besut is a town in state of Terengganu which is located in the East Coast of Malaysia. The project can be used as a means to upgrade the standard of living and quality of life of the community. The WTO(2001) defines culture as: "Other people lifestyles expressed through their religion; festival; costumes; arts and craft; architecture; music and dance; folklore; and literature. Culture is manifested in both the living and dynamic aspects of a people's everyday life as well as in built heritage i.e. monuments and sites. Cultural Tourism is a types or a segment of tourism in which the basic motives for traveling is observing a certain cultural event or cultural value. This important market segment primarily includes cultural monuments and cultural manifestation. Some authors speak of inheritance tourism, historic tourism and art tourism. (Panic- Combo 2000: 175). The cultural resources become tourist attractive through the process of interpretation which includes selection and forming (packaging) (Pancic-Kombol 2000 : 178) The main objectives of the research are: · To identify the potential cultural resources in the area · To sustain and develop the cultural resources and heritage sites in the area. · To promote the local cultural resources for economic development of domestic and foreign tourist. · To study the potential of cultural resources product for future tourism development in the area. The result of this research enables the local and state government to develop the cultural tourism product for domestic and international attraction. Hence through this development of cultural attraction it will also increase the income and upgrade the social life of the local community and the state government. Primary data were collected via observations and interviews through checklists on the following resources - Natural Resources, Cultural Resources, Community Resources, Site Resources, Environment assessment, Tourism Services and Facilities Resources.