Tourism development and its impact on residents' quality of life: the case of Historic City of Melaka, Malaysia / Akmal Adanan, Tania Maria Tangit and Rozman Md. Yusof

This study will examine the impact of tourism development to the residents in one of the Historical City in Malaysia, Melaka; where UNESCO has listed the city as the World Heritage Sites in July 7th, 2008 (UNESCO, 2008). Being among Malaysia's popular heritage destinations, Melaka has received a significant increase of tourist arrivals from 2008 to 2009. The number of tourists have increased by 23.6% from 7,205,492 million (2008) to 9,905,273 million tourists (2009), (Tourism Melaka, 2010). It was observed that the residents in Melaka comprise of different social classes, namely, the upper class, middle class, and lower class. With the influx of tourists, this would possibly generate benefits as well as create problems to the communities in the area.

The objectives of this study are: (1) To investigate the residents' overall perceptions on tourism development in Melaka and their QoL, and (2) to investigate the relationship of tourism development in Melaka towards residents' QoL. the scope of study covers the population of Melaka Tengah, one of the districts in the state of Melaka, where tourism attractions and activities are carried out. This study will use a descriptive correlational design to examine how tourism development influences the residents' QoL. The suggested sample size is 384 residents. This figure is derived through a probability sampling technique using the area sampling method whereby samples are drawn from the UNESCO designated zones. The results will assist both the State Government and various tourism stakeholders in planning and managing tourism resources in a sustainable manner as well as enhancing the QoL of local residents. It is hoped that the research outcome will provide a significant contribution to the fields of sustainable tourism development in Malaysia, heritage cities worldwide as well as to the body of knowledge (theories).