INFLUENCES SHAPE FUTURE (KELANTAN)

Urban tourism is the types of tourism which contribute to the economy of a country.  Urban tourism is a destination that has a range of functions to visit by local residents or tourists and domestic visitors from outside. Typically, the tourist attraction of urban tourism in Kelantan is a cultural and heritage resources involves other than as a destination for shopping and recreation.

            The Concept of Kota Bharu Islamic City is one of the influences that will shape the future of tourism. Kota Bharu, Kelantan was declared by the state government as an Islamic City since October 1st, 2005, thus the city is now practicing Islamic principles in every aspect of daily life. Essentially, the urban design of the city is based on the state government slogan, Developing with Islam in the direction of creating a city which could be related to an Islamic identity. The basis of the Kota Bharu Islamic city was to build an environment that consists of three major connections, namely, human with God, human with human, and human with nature. At the same time, the trade and industry spaces in the city will be upgraded to offer greater diversity along with exhorted people respect the nature and having a better understanding of divinity. Therefore, they have provided more religious spaces and buildings for the community, especially for the Muslim community. Then, Kota Bharu, as an Islamic City, represents a symbolic icon in the urban development of the Islamic state of Kelantan, Malaysia. One of the most visible Islamic iconographies is the prevalence of Jawi script which is a modified form of Arabic script used for writing the Malay language in the names of streets, shops, signboards and billboards.

Compared to Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, cities at the east side generally appear to be more laid back and relaxed.  If Tourist want experience Islamic Malaysia, Kota Bharu is a great place to start. There, it hardly see any western influences (like modern shops or shopping malls). Kota Bharu is very rich with culture; with beautiful and vibrant markets and mosques. It also interesting are the various museums, the old royal palace and former royal buildings in the center of town. Tourist can also visit a buddhist temple where you can look at a huge sleeping buddha; the Wat Pothvihan.

At the same time, the progress of urban's tourism industry was helped by the existence of the unique culture in the state of Kelantan. In view of, Kelantan is a state that has the most unique culture. The unique culture make the increase foreign tourist visit to Kelantan. The unique culture such as mak yong, Dikir Barat and Wau Bulan (kite-flying). In addition, Kelantan is rich in a variety of traditional foods that can be enjoyed by tourists. The famous traditional food in the state of Kelantan are Nasi Kerabu, Nasi Dagang, Nasi Tumpang, Ketupat Palas and a variety of food that will not be found in other states. The uniqueness of this cultural is one of factor influences that will shape the future of tourism.

            It also easy to get kota Bharu, tourist can choose by air, by bus, and by train.  The most popular way to get to Kota Bharu is by air as there are numerous daily flights from Kuala Lumpur. Three airlines operate on this route; Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Firefly. Malaysia Airlines departs from KLIA (domestic), AirAsia departs from LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) and Firefly departs from Subang Airport. Some of the airlines also fly from other cities within Malaysia to Kota Bharu. Kota Bharu Airport (or Sultan Ismail Petra Airport) is a decent but small airport. Then, Tourist also can choose use bus. The cheapest way to reach Kota Bharu is by coach. There are quite some bus operators that have daily busses driving between Kota Bharu and many other locations within Peninsular Malaysia. Tourist also can choose to travel by train between Johor Bahru in the south of Peninsular Malaysia and Kota Bharu in the north. There is a daily train that travels straight through the jungles in the center of Peninsular Malaysia.

IMPACT OF TOURISM(KELANTAN)

 

Sultan Muhammad II founded the city of Kota Bharu on the banks of the Kelantan River in 1884. Kota Bharu and the Balai Besar Palace then flourished to become the administrative centre for Kelantan. Needing an ally in the face of the British attacks, Kelantan had to send annual gifts of gold to Siam as a token of their protection against the British. The signing of the Bangkok Treaty in 1909 however ended this practice. Instead, Kelantan and other Malay states of the east-coast of Malaysia were placed under the British governance until independence in 1957.

Kota Bharu was declared as a "Kota Budaya"(Cultural City) by Sultan Ismail Petra on 25th July 1991. The declaration was made on the basis of two important aspects, namely the history of Kota Bharu and the unique local cultures. A cultural zone, which is located around the Balai Besar Palace, has been identified and gazetted by the Kota Bharu Municipal Council for urban conservation. Important tourist attractions in the city include the Balai Besar Palace, Jahar Palace, Batu Palace (Royal Museum), War Museum, Muhammadi State Mosque, Handicraft Village, Bank Pitis, Padang Merdeka (Independence Field), Tambatan Diraja (Royal Gate), Bank Negara and Buluh Kubu Bazaar. Other tourist attractions in Kota Bharu include the Batik and Songket Centre, Silverware Centre and the Buluh Kubu Market, where the majority of the sellers are female. To date, Kota Bharu has received two prestigious awards. The National Land of Japan had selected Kota Bharu and 8 other cities around the world as "The City of Cultural Heritage". The recognition was given on the basis of local traditions, unique local cultures and tourist destinations. The Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism Malaysia has awarded Kelantan as the "Best Tourism City" in 1993. The selection was based upon factors of tourist arrivals, conservation activities and shopping facilities.

SOCIAL-CULTURAL IMPACT

The socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Kelantan are the effects on host communities of direct and indirect relations with tourists, and of interaction with the tourism industry. For a variety of reasons, host communities often are the weaker party in interactions with their guests and service providers, leveraging any influence they might have. These influences are not always apparent, as they are difficult to measure, depend on value judgments and are often indirect or hard to identify.

The impacts arise when tourism brings about changes in value systems and behaviour and thereby threatens indigenous identity. Furthermore, changes often occur in community structure, family relationships, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morality. But tourism in Kelantan also generate positive impacts as it can serve as a supportive force for peace, foster pride in cultural traditions and help avoid urban relocation by creating local jobs. As often happens when different cultures meet, socio-cultural impacts are ambiguous: the same objectively described impacts are seen as beneficial by some groups, and are perceived as negative or as having negative aspects by other stakeholders.

Kelantan also is known as the cradle of Malay culture based on the diverse cultural activities practised by Kelantanese. Among the popular cultural practices are Dikir Barat, Wayang Kulit Kelantan, Wayang Kulit Melayu, Mak Yong, Menora, Main Puteri, Wau Bulan (kite-flying), Gasing (top-spinning), Silat, bird-singing competition and handicrafts.Among the handicraft products that are songket, batik, silverware and mengkuang. The Kandis Recource Centre provides information on the Kelantanese wood carving.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Kelantan has a chiefly agrarian economy dominated by rice, rubber and tobacco. Fishing along its 96-kilometre coastline is also an important economic activity. Cottage industries which employ traditional skills in handicraft production such as batik, woodcarving and songket weaving are also evident. Logging activities are active given the vast remaining area of forest. In recent years, tourism, especially to offshore islands, has increased in importance. A few reputable hotels have been established and more modern shopping malls have been opened to cater for urban folks. Kota Bharu, the capital, is the major urban centre, and there are also plans to open up the southern portion of the state under an ambitious multi-million-dollar development project. The main market at the city centre is a top attraction. Kelantan has a GDP per capita in 2006 at RM7,985, which is about a fraction that of other richer states like Selangor and Penang. Kelantan has become the first state to introduce the gold dinar and silver dirham as official currency.

Then, Rantau Panjang (Majlis Daerah Pasir Mas), Pengakalan Kubur (Majlis Daerah Tumpat) and Bukit Bunga (Majlis Daerah Tanah Merah). Third - three border cities such as stated in the National Urbanization Policy (NUP) is the focus of the business activity for tourists visiting the state of Kelantan. Thus, indirectly making as a leading business tourism location in the state of Kelantan as Padang Besar in Perlis Indera Kayangan and Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah Darul Aman.

Moreover, the information obtained will be used as a basis for evaluating the border town which impact economically feasible with the arrival of tourists to the area. The border town will represents of Kelatan to compete with Padang Besar in Perlis and Kedah Bukit Kayu Hitam, all adjacent to Narathiwat province in southern Thailand will be developed with more vibrant intended to promote tourist arrivals thereby improving the economic status of the local people, the state and the nation.

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT

The quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, tourism's relationship with the environment is complex. It involves many activities that can have adverse environmental effects. Many of these impacts are linked with the construction of general infrastructure. The negative impacts of tourism development can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which it depends.

On the other hand, tourism has the potential to create beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation. It is a way to raise awareness of environmental values and it can serve as a tool to finance protection of natural areas and increase their economic importance.

Kelantan is witnessing a rapid growth in the vicinity of urban cities with the construction of large engineering structures (e.g. towers, factories, high-rise condominiums, wide-span bridges, roads and airports, and of tourism facilities, including resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses and marinas and highways) to meet the requirement for the nation's economic growth, societal activities and the aspirations of its population. This urbanization is the increase over time in the population of cities in relation to the regions rural population. The growth of cities is frequently implicated in concerns about environmental deterioration.

Almost half of the world's population currently lives in urban areas, and for the foreseeable future, urbanization will increase. What is more, urban growth and population growth generally - in developing countries will outpace that in industrialized countries. These urban areas, whether small towns or megacities, each develop an environmental footprint. Although there are important regional differences in the level and trend of urbanization, city growth has proceeded steadily throughout the developing world.

Moreover, many policy makers, government officials, and the like have a negative view of urbanization, who see urban growth as problematic. Environmental concerns would serve to reinforce these overall urban growth concerns. Yet, there is a positive association of urbanization and urban economic development with overall economic growth. However, the rapid rise of urbanization has giving more impacts into forest area. Environmental impacts from deforestation such as slope erosion, mass movements, sediment yield and decreasing water quality may be expected in the continuous development of the urbanization. Right now, researcher more concentrates the effect of urbanization in Kelantan and its decreasing of forest area or knowing as deforestation.

DEVELOPMENT STAGE

In the development stage, it shows that high numbers of tourists that may exceed the local population during peak periods. It also can control passes from the local to external organization. Then, it increase in tension between local people and tourist. In this stage, also company start to see the emerging potential of the area as a tourist arrive and therefore start to invest money in the region.  They build large hotel complexes and sell package holidays. A package might include travel, accommodation, food and excursions.  This makes the numbers of tourists swell dramatically and massively expands the number of job opportunities for people in the local region, in both tourist related jobs and in construction and services.

Furthermore, the goal at this stage is to maintain existing demand, reach new customers from competitors and create new products. At this stage, three strategies are seen as the most appropriate due to its use in several destination literature.

First strategy is overall cost leadership strategy. A sustainable cost advantage can be developed by Kuala Lumpur, over their competitors, through cost leadership. Cost leadership strategy is where the destination achieves lower costs than its rivals and competes across a broad range of segments. This strategy aims is to secure a cost advantage over its competitors destinations, price the product competitively, relative to how it is perceived by customers and achieve a high profit margin (Thompson, 1997). If this applies, destinations will earn strong profits while attracting consumers at lower prices. As the result, the tourists’ perceived value of the product becomes the competitive advantage (Andriotis, 2001).

Second strategy is differentiation strategy. Differentiation strategy is centred upon increasing the value for which the tourist is willing to pay premium prices. Thus it is crucial for the Kuala Lumpur to ensure the cost to add value is invested in areas that the tourists perceive as important as well, it is essential to the tourist to recognise and appreciate the product uniqueness and differences (Thompson, 1997).

Third strategy is focus strategy. Compared to the overall cost leadership and differentiation strategies that appeal to the broad market, focus strategy is where the destination may choose to confine their products/services to particular market segment, thus concentrating only on one segment or a limited range of segments. The destination of “get to know the needs of these segments and pursues either cost leadership or a form of differentiation within the target segment” is important. Consequently the focus strategy serves this market better than competitor destination.