Heritage trail planning in Melaka Historic City : its potential objectives, themes and target users

Abstract

This dissertation concerned on the formation of heritage trail in historic town or city. Heritage trail refers to designated route that brings the trail explorer to learn about an area’s history and heritage. It has become a widely accepted way to promote area’s history or heritage and to enhance tourism development or local economic. However, there is a tendency that heritage trail design and planning is prior concerned to tourist demands and needs. Consequently, several functions of heritage trail are not fully utilised. From previous researches, rarely research has been done in this area. Thus, the purpose of study is to understand the formation of heritage trail in historic towns based on three points of view: objective, theme and target trail user. Qualitative research was applied in this study to understand the dynamic situation of heritage trail. There are two stages of case study: review of existing heritage trails of various places as to identify potential trail objectives, themes and target group users; and case study of Melaka Historic City as to propose a conceptual proposal for that city. A review of heritage trails was carried out through documentary analysis while case study of Melaka Historic City involved interviews and observations. The important roles of heritage trail in historic town have been identified throughout the literature review; a summary of potential objectives, themes, and target group users was formed from the review. Lastly, themed heritage trails were suggested based on the availability of heritage assets in Melaka Historic City. This study is significance to the domain of urban design framework, heritage management and tourism packaging as it gathers and compiles knowledge of initial decision in the planning of heritage trail, which could be beneficial to the historic town or city.