Potential of heritage tourism in Muar

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics that influence the Muar district as a heritage tourism destination in Johor. Tourism industry in Malaysia showed an encouraging development. Government has given serious attention to this sector because of its ability to contribute to the national income while improving the socio-economic status of the people. This research is conducted in order to know about heritage tourism. Basically heritage tourism is a form of tourism segment that make heritage site as a main attraction and some intangible element such as culture, tradition as supporting element to heritage tourism. Hence, both tangible and intangible element important in promoting heritage tourism. Therefore, Muar has been choose as the site study for this research since Muar has a lot of heritage site and historical value. The study also to look into the existence of the existing tourist attractions which oriented to history and heritage, which this study will look at the ability of existing tourism attractions to attract tourists from Malaysia and abroad. The approach used in this study is to use non-probability sampling. Size respondents for this study was 100 respondents each for locals and tourists who come to Muar. For data analysis, this research using descriptive analysis for basic information on the overall analysis and analysis of Likert scale is used to determine the mean of each view of the importance of interpretation techniques before and after visiting Muar. The study also analyses market appeal-robusticity matrix. From the analysis, the strength of tourist attractions ready are known. This study can also be used as a case study to develop Muar as heritage tourism destination in Malaysia.