The potential of Melaka traditional Malay houses as cultural heritage tourism product in Merlimau / Muhammad Asyrik Ismail

Instead of becoming shelters of the people who live in, the Melaka traditional Malay houses
reflect the owners’ social structure, traditions, history and culture livelihood of Merlimau. The
houses are recognized as an authentic and unique architectural legacy of the Malays in peninsular
Malaysia where most of them still maintaining the authenticity based on the original structure
during the colonial era of the Dutch and British. The houses concerned were constructed based
on history, socioeconomic and geography of the Merlimau area. This paper reports the potential
of the houses as cultural heritage tourism products in Merlimau with regard to the authenticity or
unique features as well as the experience of the tourists that will lead to the intention to revisit in
the future. The result revealed that, destination attributes of authenticity or unique features of the
houses have significant influence towards the tourist experience and will stimulate the intention
to revisit. The trends of building modern and concrete houses will affect the original structure of
the traditional houses or it will result them to be demolished. Therefore, adaptation and
transformation of the houses as tourism products is an effective strategy to improve the
sustainability of cultural and historical heritage for future generation.