CULTURAL TOURISM IN MALAYSIA IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN TOURISTS: A STUDY

Malaysia is one of the economic superpowers in South East Asia, prospering at a fast pace as tourism is becoming one of the most important sectors of its economy. Areas like entertainment; beach and island tourism has become some of the major determinants of Malaysia’s phenomenal progress in tourism in the last few years. Yet one area that seems to get less attention is its cultural resources. Recently, Malaysia has turned out as one of the major destinations for the Indian Outbound Tourism market. This study looks into the situation that prevails in the area of cultural tourism in Malaysia and how are cultural as well as historical attractions of Malaysia viewed from the perspective of international tourists from India. With the help of descriptive analysis the study probes into the significance of Malaysia’s historical tourism and the awareness and perception about it among Indian visitors. Based on the study it is revealed that Malaysia’s cultural tourism resources are not promoted to the extent to which it becomes a significant part of the nation’s destination image. Lack of promotion and information available makes international visitors unaware about the potential of Malaysia as a cultural tourism destination. However, most of the tourists were satisfied with the cultural sites/attractions and think Malaysia is a reasonably good cultural destination.