SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON HIGHLAND AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF GENTING HIGHLAND,

PAHANG

Nurbaidura Salim ,Mohd Fauzi Sukiman, & Badaruddin Mohamed School of Housing, Building and Planning 11800 Universiti Sains Malaysia,Malaysia.

Email: fauzisukiman@gmail.com, baidura88@gmail.com, drbada@gmail.com © Ontario International Development Agency. ISSN 1923-6654 (print)

ISSN 1923-6662 (online). Available at http://www.ssrn.com/link/OIDA-Intl-Journal-Sustainable-Dev.html Abstract: The quality and quantity of lodging supply are critical factors in determining tourism success in any tourist destinations. In Malaysia, the development of tourist accommodations has been based on speculation due to lack of reliable data to support feasibility study and realistic trend analyses. One of the top destinations in Malaysia is highland areas as tourists can enjoy beautiful scenery view from the hill top with its cold breezy fresh air. Over the years, tourist arrivals to highland areas increased up near to 8 million tourists every year, forcing the potential stakeholders to invest and develop more lodgings, facilities and proper infrastructures to cater tourists’ needs. In achieving sustainability of tourism development, developers sometimes pay no heed to the planning guidelines as they are too eager about profit and investment of the development. Carrying capacity is one of the planning tools to measure sustainable development. Uncontrolled development has resulted an oversupply of lodging capacity; particularly hotels in highland areas will cause long term impacts towards physical environments and inevitable negative impacts on average occupancy rates. By referring to Genting Highland as a case study, this paper intends to discuss the critical issues arise due to the oversupply of lodging in highland area. Spatial and non-spatial data on lodging establishments were stored into integrated database of ESRI’s ArcView system which was further mapped as data layers in Geographic Information System (GIS). Outcomes of this study will show distributional maps of accommodations that existed since 1970s until present, which demonstrate the lodging evolution and development patterns in the study area. This study provides tourism stakeholders, hotel entrepreneurs, tourism operators and potential developers with insights into planning and developing new tourism accommodations based on the potential development sites as well as promotes a better integration of spatial planning of tourism development in highland areas. Keywords: lodging supply, lodging evolution and development pattern, sustainable development, highland area,

spatial planning

I. INTRODUCTION The accommodation or lodging sector is a dominant industry within the travel industry [1]. This sector which ‘accounting for around one-third of total trip expenditure’ [2] is claimed to be `the largest and most ubiquitous subsector within the tourism economy’ [3]. Lodging is a part of essential ingredient of the tourism experience [4] as tourists are attracted to visit destinations that offer appealing tourism products and quality services. Sharpley [2]

agrees that the type of tourists attracted to destination areas is directly influenced by the supply of accommodation services. Kelly and Nankervis [5] agree that the development of accommodation in a destination will attract long-stay visitors as reputation of a destination can be enhanced by the level of services offered by the hotel operators. It is crucial beside the external factors such as attractions and activities of the tourism destination to ensure success in one destination. In Malaysia, lodging is part and parcel of service industry that is crucial and has been given serious consideration by the government, especially in its development phases and quality grading. The government has provided enormous allocation for both tourism promotions and tourist facilities including affordable lodging facilities. On overall, the growth of tourist accommodation, particularly hotel, has showed an upward trend. The hotel supply in 1980 has increased more than 167 % from 833 units to 2282 units in 2008 (Figure 1). This tremendous growth of hotels and hotel rooms was greatly influenced by the increased demand of accommodation from both international and domestic tourists. Every year, particularly after the SARS outbreak in 2003, Malaysia continues to receive numbers of tourists; and yet, the tourist arrival in 2010 has reached 24.6 million tourists, marking an increase of 4.2% from the previous year with only 23.6 million visitors [6]

.

However, lodging establishments in Malaysia were not well distributed in terms of location. Early investigation reveals that the concentration of lodging has been in the Central Business District like Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur, popular destinations such as Langkawi Island, Genting Highland and Tioman Island. Besides that, increase popularity of Redang Island and Cameron Highland also induced the development of lodging within the areas. Lodging development in Malaysia has been based on speculations such as average occupancy rate, tourist arrivals and hotel guests, and not really entirely based on realistic trend analyses. Plus, the current grading system is often unable to address the qualities of all hospitality business on an equitable basis. These happened due to the lack of reliable data to support the feasibility studies and project development proposals. Thus, this study attempts to reveal an evolution of the lodging development in the study area from its starting point to recent years. Wild development resulted to oversupply of lodging capacity; particularly hotels in highland areas which caused long term impacts towards physical environments and inevitable negative impacts on average occupancy rates. Lodging sector in Malaysia needs serious consideration and proper development if Malaysia wants to become the preferred destination among international and domestic travelers alike. II. LODGING DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHLAND AREA

Hill stations like Fraser’s Hill and Cameron Highlands owed their origins and early development to colonialism. They were specialized highland outposts of colonial settlement that initially catered for the Europeans in search of health, relaxation, and amusement [7]. King [8] has noted that the hill stations were provided in its physical, social, psychological and aesthetic climate, the closest approximation to conditions of life at home. This type of settlement became a place of protection from the perceived health risks of the lowlands, which were mainly because of the harmful effects of the tropical climate [9]. Based on this opinion, the existing British colonial heritage buildings can provide the same outlooks for those who do not have the opportunities to be in Britain to experience the settings. Furthermore, the hill stations played a role as resorts as well. Aiken [7]

Penang Hill, Maxwell’s Hill, Fraser’s Hill, and Cameron Highlands were the four hill stations established by the British in Malaysia. The rest of hill stations were developed in the 1880s, 1920s, and 1930s, respectively. All four hill stations were undeveloped, small and just housed a collection of bungalows. Among all of them, only Cameron Highlands had appreciable development due to the development of commercial agriculture, not because of its role as a centre of health and recreation. However, Genting Highlands, the newest hill station of Peninsular

cited that although the hill resorts are detached from the alien land and life of the lowlands, isolated in the cool and airy highlands, the hill stations offered privacy surrounding, exclusive environments where European residents could feel at home. It is not a surprise that visitors to the highland resorts commented so frequently on their bracing air, on their familiar-appearing landscapes and architecture, their neat little gardens, and on other simple reminders of home. The romantic ambience associated with the faraway land can be exploited to encourage tourism, a sector that is not strongly tapped on these hill resorts.

The Supply of Hotels in Malaysia, 1980-2008

833

1365 1419

1404

1492 1776

2031 2091 2100 2131 2155 2205 2282

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1980 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year

Number

Source: Tourist Development Corporation Malaysia, 1980 Tourism Malaysia, 1997-2007 Leisure Property Stock Report, Valuation & Property Services Department, 2002-2008

Figure 1 The supply hotels in Malaysia 1980-2000

Malaysia, a sizable tourist and gambling resort is excluded from that rule. It dates from the post-colonial 1960s and was founded by two local Asians, not by colonial government [10]

In 1971, the first hotel at Genting Highlands was successfully completed and was then named Highlands Hotel (now renamed as Theme Park Hotel). With the increasing number of visited tourists year by year, Genting Highlands Resort continued to expand since the opening of the first hotel in 1971. As in year 1980; nine years after its opening, Genting Highland has developed five hotels with 1,083 rooms; fully equipped with various facilities to cater tourists’ needs. In 1997, Genting Highlands Resort further boosted its facility attraction with Genting Skyway cable car system that provides a 3.38 km transport to the hilltop. Genting Skyway is also recognised as the "World's Fastest Mono Cable Car System" with a maximum speed of 21.6 km per hour and the "Longest Cable Car in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Currently, Genting Highlands Resort has six prestigious hotels (namely Maxims, Genting Hotel, Highlands Hotel, Resort Hotel, Theme Park Hotel and First World Hotel) and two apartment blocks (Ria and Kayangan Apartments) at the hilltop and Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort. Rapid development of lodging in the study area had given significant impact to the surrounding economy as many budget hotels were developed in the vicinity. Development of the area continued with care taken to ensure the maintenance of the natural beauty of the rainforest of the region.

. The idea of creating a hill resort located in proximity to Kuala Lumpur was founded by the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong during a business trip to Cameron Highlands in 1964. The idea was mooted while enjoying the fresh and crisp air from the balcony at his hotel room.

Destination ≥100 rooms 50-99 rooms 20-49 rooms 10-19 rooms Hotels Rooms Hotels Rooms Hotels Rooms Hotels Rooms

Genting Highlands 3 978 1 71 1 34 0 0 Cameron Highlands 0 0 2 129 6 185 9 119 Fraser’s Hill 1 100 0 0 0 0 2 22

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

No.of tourist arrivals ('000)

Year

Tourist Arrivals in Genting Highland , 2001-2007

Table 1 Number of hotel and hotel rooms in Malaysia hill resort during 1980

Figure 2 Number of tourist arrivals in Genting Highland, 2011-2007

III. METHODOLOGY This study embarks on an extensive review and comprehensive data collection on lodging industry in east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia. Hence, the process of gaining information involves secondary resources as well as primary data collection. The secondary data was sought from government, other organizations, personal and international archives, and other related resources to assist in the analysis of the history, trend and patterns of accommodation establishment. Some examples of secondary resource materials were established government reports (e.g. Structure Plans, Local Plans and City Master Plans), accommodation directory (by Tourism Malaysia and Malaysian Association of Hotels), hotel guide book, tourist pages, websites, tourism brochures, history books and etc. The primary data was collected through series of site visits and interviews of focus groups on selected lodging establishments. During the site visits, the researchers conducted ground counts on tourist accommodation using GPS receiver to record the location and coordinate of establishments based on satellite data. These satellite data were then plotted onto GIS (Geographic Information System) map and incorporated with the tourist accommodation inventory as in Figure 3. The collected data both primary and secondary then has been analyze through several phase as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 3 Georeferencing process with five control points

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The Growth of Lodging Industry in Genting Highland The findings of this research can be classified into two types namely tabular output and cartographic output. Tabular output is presented in the form of summary data and statistics while cartographic output is in the form of maps generated from geographical analysis. The result tends to show how the evolution and development trend faced by Genting Highland as one of the greatest hill tourism destination in Malaysia from 1970s until 2008. In general, the evolution of lodging industry in Genting Highland increased significantly through the years. Comparison of three top destinations in Pahang namely Genting Highland, Cameron Highland and Fraser’s Hill are showed in Table 2 to compare the growth of tourist accommodation in term of number of hotel rooms. To date, there are 9143 hotel rooms in Genting Highland. This scenario is parallel with the increment number of tourist arrival in the study area. The evolution of accommodation industry in Genting Highland is showed as in the Figure 4 below.

Tourist Destination Number of hotel rooms Year 1980 Year 2010 Year 2011

Genting Highland 1083 9068 9143 Cameron Highland 433 1628 1264

Fraser’s Hill 122 91 91

LODGING DATA

OBJECTIVE

STUDY SCOPE

DATA COLLECTION

SPATIAL DATA TEXTUAL DATA

DIGITIZE DIGITIZE

VERIFICATION VERIFICATION

JOIN

VERIFICATION

OUTPUT

ROAD NETWORK

WATER BODY LODGING ESTABLISHMENT

TOURISM PRODUCT

TABULAR

CARTOGRAPHIC

STATE BOUNDARY

Figure 4 Technical framework for mapping tourism accommodation establishments

Table 2 Number of hotel rooms in three top hill resort destinations during 1980 until 2011

Figure 5(a): Lodging industry in 1975

Figure 5(b): Lodging industry in 1993

Figure 5(d): Lodging industry in 2001

Figure 5(c): Lodging industry in 1998

Figure 5(e): Lodging industry in 2004

Figure 5(f): Lodging industry in 2008

Figure 5: Evolution of lodging industry in study area

Room occupancy vs Tourist arrival Overall, the number of tourist arrival rose significantly for the past six years as Genting Highlands receives an average of 4 million tourists from 2001 until 2008. This figure tends to rise as Genting Highland receives more tourists (7 million) in 2010 (Figure 5). Out of 10 million tourists visited Pahang last year, 70% of the tourists visited Genting Highland compared to other tourist destinations in Pahang. Genting Highland; famous with its entertainment and gambling resort is equipped with miscellaneous facilities such as shopping complexes, gaming centre and casinos attract more tourists to spend their holidays in the study area. The increased number of tourists through the year triggered the development of lodging surrounding the areas. Factors influencing tourist arrivals are the location of study area which offered breezy cool air and beautiful ambience from the top of the hills. Facilities and services offered somehow influenced the tourist arrivals in the study area. Plus, most of the lodging in the study area does not use any air conditioner and are only equipped with ventilation fan to suit the cold temperature of the study area. The increment of tourist arrivals rose significant with the number of room occupancy. From calculation, rate of room occupancy in the study area is 80% per year which mean the lodging development in Genting Highland still consider the concept of sustainability before develop more accommodations in the vicinity. However, in year 2007, number of room occupancy became stagnant with the increased number of tourists. This situation if not fixed, may cause insufficient hotel rooms as Genting Highland receives more and more tourists every year especially during peak seasons. State Government in collaboration with Genting Highland Management has found a positive way to boost tourism in other destinations by including and promoting other interesting destinations in Pahang (such as Elephant Sanctuary in Kuala Gandah, National Park, Lipis and Rompin) in their advertisements and brochures. By implementing this, those who visited Genting Highland will come by to visit other interesting destinations in Pahang.

Destination 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Tourist Arrival 3,191,774 5,622,154 7,962,647 5,622,154 6,631,092 7,000,000

Destination 2001 2004 2006 2007

Tourist Arrival 2,733,808 3,003,506 5,622,154 7,962,647

Room Occupancy 5785 7753 10132 10132

Table 4 Comparison between tourist arrival and room occupancy in Genting Highland

Figure 6 Comparison between tourist arrival and room occupancy in Genting Highland

Table 3 Number of tourist arrivals in Genting Highland (2005 – 2010)

V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Lodging surveys that often carried out by tourism ministry and hotel association tends to study on room occupancy rates, hotel guests and customer satisfaction. The outputs produced were mainly in the form of raw data and statistics and not on realistic trend analyses. The lack of reliable data on trend analyses has deterred the decision makers and industry players to determine and measure the gap between lodging market supply and demand in the country. This study utilized a GIS-based approach for the spatial visualization of tourist accommodations at the state level. The approach and methodology can also be used for mapping tourist attractions, tourist amenities and tourism services. The use of GIS also allows more profound geographical analysis of lodging data. Integrating map with useful information help the researchers to understand and allow them to study the trend of the lodging industry in a spatial context. Certainly, this research has its own limitation as other dimensions, such as ownership and management, are not being looked at. There are also qualitative characteristics of the accommodation sector and the type of tourism value attracted to the destination, which can be incorporated in future research. There are some of the hotel or budget hotels owner who did not register their premises with local authority and thus, do not have the license. There are some of the hotels or budget hotel’s owners who did not acquire for license as they are not registered with Local Authority. Lenient of law enforcement from local authority caused them to pay no heed to register their premises. There are also qualitative characteristics of the accommodation sector and the type of tourism value attracted to the destination, which can be incorporated in future research. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research is funded by Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. REFERENCE 1. Gee, C. Y., Makens, J. C., & Choy, D. J. L. (1997). The travel industry: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Retrieved from

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