International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre

Rapid developments in Malaysia have resulted into unrestrained urban growth in major cities, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city. Urbanization also led to the deterioration of the Kuala Lumpur historic urban areas and their domination by modern urban constructions. Through these changes,...

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Main Author:	Najd, Meysam Deghati
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2014
Subjects:	Urbanization - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Perception Tourism
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70455/1/FRSB%202014%2018%20-%20IR.pdf
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id	my-upm-ir.70455
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spelling	my-upm-ir.704552019-10-30T04:33:46Z International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre 2014-12 Najd, Meysam Deghati Rapid developments in Malaysia have resulted into unrestrained urban growth in major cities, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city. Urbanization also led to the deterioration of the Kuala Lumpur historic urban areas and their domination by modern urban constructions. Through these changes, city transformation witnesses identity crises in addition to the formation of an identical modern global image of city. In this regards, tourism industry is also affected due to historic heritage conservation issues. Therefore, serious attempts are highly demanded to implement an integrated heritage conservation by utilizing public participation while elevating the tourism industry. This study aims to identify public perceptions towards historic urban areas by bringing in public and international tourists’ perception into account for a sustainable and integrated heritage conservation. The Kuala Lumpur Historic City Centre (KLHCC), the most historic urban heritage site in the city was taken as the study area for the current research. An exploratory preference survey carried out by using a photo questionnaire that sampled 308 international tourists from 54 countries while visiting the study area. The data was analysed by means of the Content Identifying Method (CIM) and several statistical analyses to determine group preferences toward KLHCC, the historic urban area. The findings of this study showed low preferability of KLHCC as a prominent historic area in the eyes of international tourists despite of ongoing heritage conservation by the government. It also indicated a deficiency of existing expert-based conservation guidelines, rules and regulations. Moreover, the findings introduced six key visual preference dimensions of historic urban area which significantly contribute to the international tourists’ preferences. Chaotic, historic architecture, roadside heritage, greenery, connectivity and modernity are those dimensions from which historic architecture was measured as the most preferred while chaotic was of the least preferred among others. In addition to the physical characteristics, the influences of some personal factors were studied against visual preference dimensions. These factors included of socio-demographic characteristics of gender, age, level of education and country of origin together with socio-psychological motivation, level of familiarity and interest level. Contrary to the socio-demographic characteristics of participants that did not show any significant impact upon their visual preferences toward KLHCC, socio-psychological motivation, level of familiarity and interest level were highly correlated and impose influences on the dimension groups. Implementations of the findings from this study have the capability of contributing towards public-based conservation and preservation of historic urban areas in different levels of consideration and decision making processes. Urbanization - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Perception Tourism 2014-12 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70455/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70455/1/FRSB%202014%2018%20-%20IR.pdf text en public masters Universiti Putra Malaysia Urbanization - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Perception Tourism
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	Urbanization - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Perception Tourism
spellingShingle	Urbanization - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Perception Tourism Najd, Meysam Deghati International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
description	Rapid developments in Malaysia have resulted into unrestrained urban growth in major cities, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city. Urbanization also led to the deterioration of the Kuala Lumpur historic urban areas and their domination by modern urban constructions. Through these changes, city transformation witnesses identity crises in addition to the formation of an identical modern global image of city. In this regards, tourism industry is also affected due to historic heritage conservation issues. Therefore, serious attempts are highly demanded to implement an integrated heritage conservation by utilizing public participation while elevating the tourism industry. This study aims to identify public perceptions towards historic urban areas by bringing in public and international tourists’ perception into account for a sustainable and integrated heritage conservation. The Kuala Lumpur Historic City Centre (KLHCC), the most historic urban heritage site in the city was taken as the study area for the current research. An exploratory preference survey carried out by using a photo questionnaire that sampled 308 international tourists from 54 countries while visiting the study area. The data was analysed by means of the Content Identifying Method (CIM) and several statistical analyses to determine group preferences toward KLHCC, the historic urban area. The findings of this study showed low preferability of KLHCC as a prominent historic area in the eyes of international tourists despite of ongoing heritage conservation by the government. It also indicated a deficiency of existing expert-based conservation guidelines, rules and regulations. Moreover, the findings introduced six key visual preference dimensions of historic urban area which significantly contribute to the international tourists’ preferences. Chaotic, historic architecture, roadside heritage, greenery, connectivity and modernity are those dimensions from which historic architecture was measured as the most preferred while chaotic was of the least preferred among others. In addition to the physical characteristics, the influences of some personal factors were studied against visual preference dimensions. These factors included of socio-demographic characteristics of gender, age, level of education and country of origin together with socio-psychological motivation, level of familiarity and interest level. Contrary to the socio-demographic characteristics of participants that did not show any significant impact upon their visual preferences toward KLHCC, socio-psychological motivation, level of familiarity and interest level were highly correlated and impose influences on the dimension groups. Implementations of the findings from this study have the capability of contributing towards public-based conservation and preservation of historic urban areas in different levels of consideration and decision making processes.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Najd, Meysam Deghati
author_facet	Najd, Meysam Deghati
author_sort	Najd, Meysam Deghati
title	International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
title_short	International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
title_full	International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
title_fullStr	International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
title_full_unstemmed	International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre
title_sort	international tourists’ visual preferences of kuala lumpur historic city centre
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
publishDate	2014
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/70455/1/FRSB%202014%2018%20-%20IR.pdf
_version_	1747812842037313536

International tourists’ visual preferences of Kuala Lumpur historic city centre

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