Issues In Tourism Destination Development In Kuala Lumpur

Analysis of tourist visitation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Identify the main issues for the location as a tourism destination and contrast these with concepts from at least ten (10) recent and relevant academic literature sources.

International tourism has experienced rapid growth globally. In this study, Kuala Lumpur is selected to show the international tourism system. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is among the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Asian countries.

In this study, tourist visitation in Kuala Lumpur is stated with support of the statistics. Factors of tourism attraction of Kuala Lumpur are described providing the theoretical background like travellers’ satisfaction and motivation to visit Kuala Lumpur. Issues of tourism and destination development of Kuala Lumpur are explained. In addition, the negative and positive impact of tourism activities on host community is described in this study.      

Tourists’ visits in Kuala Lumpur are increasing and Kuala Lumpur is the second most-visited South-Asian cities after Bangkok. According to Forbes Magazine, Kuala Lumpur is listed ninth in the most visited city in the world, with 12.1 million international visitors in the year 2017. In the Malaysia, tourism board did aggressive promotion for tourism. The current target of Kuala Lumpur is to drastically cut the budget for the tourism promotion; however, the main target is to lure the regional, international and local travellers. In addition, in the year 2017, Kuala Lumpur observed total 25.9 million travellers and the earned almost 82.1 billion receipts (MYR) (Mus et al. 2017). This figure has been increasing over the last five years; however, this figure slightly dropped in 2017. However, Kuala Lumpur gained 0.1% growth n tourist receipts and the average length to stay (ALOS) for international tourists reduced to 5.7 nights from 5.9 nights in the last year.

Table 1: International travellers visit in Kuala Lumpur

(Source: Tourism.gov.my 2018)

East Asian market of tourism observed a growth of 6%; however, the other tourism market showed the decline. The ASEAN market of tourism dropped by almost -3.8% in Kuala Lumpur. Europe section showed the decline of -1.8%, Oceania (-5.3%), America (-1.6%) and Africa (-7%). Moreover, ASEAN market has been dominated by almost 75% of the tourist share for Kuala Lumpur (Amir et al. 2017). In this case, Singapore is the top of the list from where maximum numbers of tourists come to Kuala Lumpur, followed by Indonesia, China, Thailand, Brunei and India. On the contrary, numbers of visitors from China has been increased by almost 7.45% and flight frequency from China to Kuala Lumpur has been increased. It is noteworthy that Wars in Syria, Qatar and Yemen influenced the Middle East tourism market and Malaysia stopped the Malaysian Airlines routes towards Kuwait and Dubai in the year 2016 (Musa et al. 2016). However, travellers from India and China are making a maximum booking as it is the positive indicator. Malaysia has made improved in Visa facilities. Tourism Malaysia promotional plan for 2018-20 has been formulated targeting more than 37 million tourists.

Explaining what makes the destination attractive to tourists

In Kuala Lumpur, there are numerous beautiful places to visit and this city is well-maintained and developed by authorities and this city is metropolitan with economically developed one. As stated by Leiper (2017), the phenomenon ‘tourism’ system is functioning under various circumstances; this system is associated with the socio, human, cultural, technological and physical environment. Real whole tourism system is associated with the people, place, organisation that interacts the certain role when tourism happens. In addition, internal factors of the tourism motivation come from integrating person’s behaviour, the personality of the travellers and decision-making process of the international travellers (Kasim, 2015). The physique and nature of the tourists play the vital roles towards the motivation in travel. Kuala Lumpur provides both relaxation and happiness to the tourists as it has places like Batu Caves, Boh Plantation, Strawberry field and Lavender plantations. Kuala Lumpur is an amazing place to make holiday trip and spend the times with the near ones. The sky-scrappers and internationally famous five-star hotels make the place easily accommodated for the people.

Some of the famous places in Kuala Lumpur where the travellers can visit start from Petronas Twin Towers; these are famous for the tallest architectural pieces and this place is visited by millions of people across the world. The travellers visit Cameron Highland for sightseeing as this place is the home to a plethora of agricultural farm for getting the fresh produce. Aquaria KLCC are the world’s largest aquarium and it has more than 5000 marine and freshwater creatures. Chinatown on Petaling Street is located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and this place is famous for the bustles and colours (Ujang and Muslim, 2016). Segway Ride in Lake Gardens is an eco-friendly rise in Kuala Lumpur and this ride takes the travellers to the national parks. Kuala Lumpur provides helicopter tour to the city from where the travellers can experience the beautiful scenery from a helicopter.

In Kuala Lumpur, the travellers do not have much tour guides if they come not in a group. The local guides do not know English well and they do not know Spanish or other international languages. Most of the local people use Mandarin and Cantonese as most of the population are Chinese. The tour guides do not know the neighbouring language as well like Japan and Korean. Tourists want assistance to reach places and therefore, intercultural miscommunication happens between two different people (Nor et al. 2016). Ministry of tourism acknowledges that different language speaking guides are needed to cater the enhance a number of travellers.

Identifying and analyze issues related to tourism and destination development at the location

Since the time of the 1980s, Malaysia has been experiencing the diversified economy. In Kuala Lumpur, tourism is main industry only after oil and gas sector. Tourism infrastructure is not fully developed in Kuala Lumpur as the development related to eco-tourism. Ecotourism is expanding in Kuala Lumpur where the parks are kept for the biodiversity. Increasing numbers of tourists can create dilemma; the balance is needed for the revenues and tourism. Therefore, the activities like golf-courses, resorts, roads and marinas are creating through the destruction of the natural habitat. Over-tourism is creating an issue for Kuala Lumpur as eco-tourism or the balance of nature is being destructed. Therefore, the omission of the natural habitat increases the chance of more damage to the eco-system.

Over-development is a negative factor of Kuala Lumpur as the city has been developed drastically as resident businesses seek to capitalise the economic windfall of tourism through increased construction. There are many large numbers of sky-scrappers which can be seen throughout the city and the building and large coastal resorts have two types of influences. Many of the resorts do not have the awareness of the environmental factors as these resorts are built without an understanding of the natural process and the result is the harmful impact on beaches, coastal lagoons and mangrove forests (Rahman, 2016). Overdevelopment in some of the parts of the city has increased the numbers of people located in these parts.       

When tourists enter Kuala Lumpur, the travellers experience inadequate infrastructural facilities like transportation and accommodation. In Kuala Lumpur, the travellers mainly face the issue of shortage of resort-hotels as maximum hotels in Kuala Lumpur are high-rise without having a touch of green. International Travellers face the issue of transportation as transports are not frequent in Kuala Lumpur. Cab service is not good in Kuala Lumpur and cab drivers are known for charges unscrupulously from the international visitors and this system comes from lack of regulation in Kuala Lumpur (Cheng and Wu, 2015). The taxi service is unchallenged from the government and taxi drivers are free to demand. Tourists who arrive at Kuala Lumpur international airport do not have suitable alternative apart from the cab for reaching the specific location.

The coastal area in Kuala Lumpur is famous for the recreational scuba diving as the tourism department opens the door for the scuba diving. Therefore, it has opened the door to the destruction of the marine habitat. The maximum scuba divers are inexperienced and they do scuba diving for fun. International tourists mainly do the scuba diving and it often leads to unwittingly crash to the coral that mainly took many years to grow (Edgell, 2016). Dive operators cannot manage such large numbers of tourists with their limited staffs and resources for the adventure sports. In Kuala Lumpur, the dive operators provide certification to new-comers with limited experiences; the dive operators need to rethink before they provide a certificate as it must maintain the proper student-to-instructor ratio. Marine habitat has been facing the issue of further damage in Kuala Lumpur.

In Kuala Lumpur, one section of the people is poor and the instances of increase of crime are increasing for the tourists. In hotels and cab services, the people are warming and friendly. However, international and regional tourists face the issue of thefts and robbery. Average apartments and hotels and not secured for the tourists and the travellers need to keep the money, camera and jewellery secured way (Ruhanen et al. 2015). 

Negative impacts of tourism activity on communities in Kuala Lumpur

The direct income for Kuala Lumpur is the amount of tourists’ expenditure that remains locally after taxes, wages and profits are paid outside the area; therefore, the economic leakage in Kuala Lumpur is seen. Heavy traffic in Kuala Lumpur region and overcrowding has been creating an issue for the international travellers. In many of the places of the Kuala Lumpur poor sanitation leads to the disease for the travellers. Communities are not very healthy in Kuala Lumpur as some of the community members do not like the intrusion of the outsiders in the area as it can disturb the local culture and may create unrest among the people. In Kuala Lumpur; many of the community members enter criminal activities to grab the easy money from international travellers (Garcia et al. 2015).

The negative social impact is the overcrowding of the palace and some of the things are getting overpriced due to the need of the travellers. Customs and community traditions are overshadowed due to the increased visit of the international travellers. In addition, visits of the international travellers create overdevelopment for Kuala Lumpur. In order to mitigate the needs of the international travellers, many resorts and hotels have been developing in Kuala Lumpur. Therefore, damage to natural habitat and flora and fauna is obvious in Kuala Lumpur. Tropical circumstances and rainforests can lead to the huge diversity of animal and plants that have more than 8000 species of flowering plants in Kuala Lumpur (Amir et al. 2017). Local people are displaced from the coastal areas of Kuala Lumpur in order to build new resorts and eco-cottages.

Natural resources of Kuala Lumpur are in shortage and depletion of natural resources is occurring due to the misuse of nature. Hotels and resorts do the disposal of waste that creates the issue for the local community. Due to the excessive footfall; more noise and more transport; the ecological balance of Kuala Lumpur is at stake.  Moreover, in Kuala Lumpur; unforeseen terrorism; impactful weather condition and political upheaval can create disaster for the economy (Wells et al. 2016). In case of the inbound tourism; this situation can cause the considerable impact on the destination tourism in Kuala Lumpur.

Positive impacts of tourism activity on communities in Kuala Lumpur  

Kuala Lumpur is surrounded by the industrial zone and it is one of the fastest growing regions in Malaysia. Malaysia government relocated some of the administration offices to Putrajaya; however; some of the offices remained in Kuala Lumpur. Many of the travellers come to visit Kuala Lumpur; therefore, it provides the scope to the tourists to generate income creation. As stated by Tang and Abosedra (2016), tourism is an instrument to transfer the vast sum of money to generate income for the host community. Tourism in Kuala Lumpur determines the multiplier effect in the destination. Tourism makes the initial expenditure on society that is received by the shopkeeper, taxi drivers, hotels and tour operators. Host communities in Kuala Lumpur have the most convenient way of earnings in foreign exchange. The tourists spend the money in Malaysia through travelling through the railway and air or roadways; therefore; communities will earn the money through this. The major impact of the tourism is related to increase the employment. The tourism industry in Kuala Lumpur is highly labour intensive and it is the valuable source of employment. The highest employers in the tourism industry are the food services, entertainment, accommodation, public transport, travel arrangers and automobile transportation.

In addition, communities in Kuala Lumpur are aware of the sustainable tourism as the communities try to place the spotlight on the responsible planning of the tourism (Koberl et al. 2016). Maximum visits of the international tourists make their footprint on the environment and they damage the green area and the international tourists can help maximise or minimise the habitat they visit. Tourism has always been closely linked to the development and it can embrace the growing numbers of new destinations.

Moreover, local communities try to improve the tourism infrastructure in order to provide better local facilities. Better leisure facilities and organising frequent social events attract maximum numbers of travellers. In Kuala Lumpur; Belly Bailout, International Conference and Zumba festivals attract many of the international travellers (Wachwiak, 2016). Increasing demand for the better services can mix the people with a diverse background that creates the cosmopolitan culture in the region.

Effective investment:

In order to develop tourism towards the sustainability, Kuala Lumpur tourism authority needs to do the tourism development plan to be effective and forward-looking. Tourism development board in Kuala Lumpur should use the investment to be effective and promote the sustainable. The growth of tourism needs to be facilitated by the investment as well as infrastructure and the transport in Kuala Lumpur. The investment must be made on the accommodation, transport and entertainment of the visitors. Kuala Lumpur needs to understand that attracting tourism investment has become the competitive business and it can impact potential to contribute to the economic development of such place. In Kuala Lumpur, boosting the public as well as a private investment can increase the competitiveness and competitiveness to support the local development (Hannam et al. 2014).

Innovation:

Innovation concept consists of the creative idea that must provide the business value. In addition, Innovation is the catalytic development of the destination. Kuala Lumpur needs to bring the innovation process for developing the energy consumption as annual consumption of primary energy needs to be reduced. Most of the hotels and resorts should lower the utilisation of the non-renewable energies. In addition, Kuala Lumpur tourism development board should work on improvement of the transport and they can innovate the idea of less emission of the carbon by using renewable energy.  

Urban waste and water:

Sustainable tourism is incomplete without taking care of the environment. The environment should be taken care of as it is associated with the tourists’ attraction. The local communities should work on reducing the urban waste and the hotels can do the recycling process. The hotels must have the options for the disposal and it should be limited. In addition, over 60% of the hotels and resorts must take permission before they use the land for the business purpose (Musa et al. 2016). In addition, there has been continuous land occupation by the urbanisation and development of the new infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur.  

Job creation:

In addition, sustainable tourism policy should be aligned with the job creation. Without creating the new employment rules, Kuala Lumpur cannot improve the condition of job creation. Job creation will enhance the condition of the local host communities and a maximum of the local people get a chance to be employed.

Conclusion

It has been observed that Kuala Lumpur is one of the attractions for tourism of the international travellers. Today, international tourism plays an important role in society and international tourists’ arrival has increased by 4% since 2016. In the year 2017, more than 25.95 million international travellers visited in Kuala Lumpur. There are many beautiful places that attract the international travellers in Kuala Lumpur. However, Kuala Lumpur has been facing the issues of language barriers from the local guide and Malaysia opts in the diversified economy as it lacks in the infrastructure of the sustainable tourism. In addition, overdevelopment is another issue in Kuala Lumpur and misuse of the lands for making resorts and eco-cottages can cause an issue. Economic, environmental and social impacts both positive and negative way can influence Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is keen to develop the tourism to improve the quality and become richer for the community. Kuala Lumpur opts to take the mass tourism and this place is facing both positive and negative effect of tourism

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