Measuring of local communities acceptance towards community based tourism in Kampung Sri Lukut, Kluang

Abstract

Community Based Tourism (CBT) is a catalyst for economic development in rural community. However, very few CBT projects initiated consider about local community acceptance towards tourism. The aim of this study is to measure the willingness and readiness of local community towards Community Based Tourism in Kampung Sri Lukut, located in Kahang,Kluang. To achieve the above mentioned aim, 55 key informants were chosen among the stakeholder using stratified random sampling technique. In this study structured interview was the main instrument used for data collection, while observation and inventory were the secondary instruments. Data analysis was facilitated by SPSS software used to organize the data according to categories. The findings of the study reveal the potential of tourism development in Kampung Sri Lukut and the acceptance of local community in tourism is very high and has a huge potential but there is lack of management to organize the resources in there. The findings also reveal the potential of establishment cooperative to manage and gain the trust for tourism development in there. Another significant finding shows that community support, sense of belonging, cooperation is needed for tourism development. Overall, this study demonstrates that community capacity building effort is need to consider the important components such as human capital development, organization empowerment and social capital empowerment are critical components in the development of Community Based Tourism projects.