The focus of this research is on the role of stakeholders and perceived destination competitiveness in ethnic enclave destination management. Ethnic enclave destination is one of the unique tourism products in terms of art, culture, heritage, and lifestyle. In Malaysia, Little India, Brickfields is one of the popular Indian enclave destinations significantly contributing to the development of tourism in Malaysia. The perceived destination competitiveness determines the destination attributes, and the destination management is ensured by the stakeholders. However, there are just a few pieces of research that look at the relationship between perceived destination competitiveness and destination management. As a result, this study used an integrated model of TDC to examine the mix of stakeholders and perceived destination competitiveness in Little India, Brickfields. This study will have a significant impact on ethnic enclave destination management by identifying stakeholders and their roles in boosting destination competitiveness at the destination of concern.
TopAn Overview Of Ethnic Enclave Tourism Destination
One of the world's fastest-growing industries is tourism (Stankova and Amoiradis, 2019; Ahani et.al.,2019). This industry is vital not just for economic reasons but also for its social development and monitoring functions. The tourism sector contributes significantly to employment creation and foreign exchange profits (Bhatt, Pandya & Modi, 2019; Matthew et.al.,2021). In 2019, Malaysia welcomed 26,100,784 international tourists, bringing in a total of RM86.14 billion in tourism revenues (Chin, Razali & Yong 2020). According to a recent annual rating by MasterCard Inc, Kuala Lumpur is the world's fifth most-visited city (Reuters, 2019). Like in other large cities, tourism plays an integral part in Kuala Lumpur's economic life, generating income, jobs, and opportunities for the industry. The tourism industry has a wide range of infrastructure and amenities that it requires and jobs in several sectors of the community (DBKL, 2019).
“With global trends pointing to experiential tourism as a preferred method of travel, travellers want to experience a site that provides the local community a rich cultural history and excellent artistic expressions” says former Deputy Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik. During the recent launch of Tourism Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur (KL) Heritage Food Trails package 2019, he said that new initiatives would continue to bring visitors to places like Kampung Baru Petaling Street, and Brickfields to pursue authentic local experiences. As a result, an ethnic enclave tourism destination is a good fit for meeting visitors' needs. This destination is also an essential element of the accessible tourism offerings and Malaysia's significant contributors. As a result, ethnic enclave tourism contributes significantly to the development of Kuala Lumpur (Samad et.al.,2021). Ethnic enclave attractions are regarded as one of the world's most popular tourist destinations (Valenzuela-Garcia, Parella, & Güell, 2017; Kim, 2018; Woosnam et.al.,2019). This ethnic enclave has grown into an intriguing tourism attraction that emphasizes the destination's cultural similarities through social and economic factors (Santos & Yan, 2008). The names “Little” or “Town” are commonly used to describe enclave attractions such as “Little India” or “Chinatown” (Khan, 2015).