Sustainability of Baba Nyonya Tourism Heritage Culture in Malacca

Abstract

Malaysia is experiencing the tremendous tourism development. Diverse ethnic differences provide huge opportunities for Malaysia to showcase its uniqueness in architecture, traditional costumes, handicrafts, music, dance which reflects the colorful heritage and culture mixed and most of these cultural heritages are recorded in various formats too.  In general, there are lack of studies addressing sustainability of cultural heritage especially in Baba Nyonya culture.  Previous studies highlighted proper preservation, efficient management and aggressive promotion as factors to sustain cultural heritage. This study aims to analyze the status, issues, strategies and challenges of local community involvement to sustain Baba Nyonya culture in Malacca.  Face to face interviews were conducted across six stakeholders of Baba Nyonya culture including museums, restaurants, travel operators, government agencies and local communities.  There are four core factors that affect the decision-making process in Baba Nyonya sustainability includes environment; economic; culture and social factors. It was found that there are arise from conflicts in the management of cultural heritage tourism in Malaysia faced by stakeholders such as travel and museum managers, government and local communities.