Abstract
The Langkawi Island is a popular tourist destination in Malaysia, which development started in the 1990s. To date, it is among the ten islands most visited by local and foreign tourists. The development of Langkawi Island has influenced the economic structure of local community, of which, envisaged as a symbol to help the community especially in the changing economic environment due to its ability to generate income, employment and raise living standards. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the local community’s involvement and perceptions on changes in employment pattern and incomes stimulated by the tourism development in Langkawi. This study conducted a self-administered household survey and had successfully retrieved 398 respondents. From the findings, results showed that local community experienced employment opportunities which in return contributed to an increase in household income. It is therefore, notable investment on tourism development should be of interests to the government as this helps in ensuring the local community’s economic benefits.
Highlights
It is noted that tourism is one of the largest and dynamically developing sectors of the external economic activities
When Malaysia implemented the tourism campaign extensively in 1990s, the impact of tourism development has grown tremendously especially in the islands and marine parks tourism sectors. [1] states tourism has been identified as an important factor in many contemporary island economies. [2] mentions, with comparatively advantageous effects in income and employmentgeneration, tourism is seen as an option for enhancing rural lifestyle and for inducing positive changes in the distribution of income in underprivileged regions
Tourism development contributes towards the enhancement of local communities in the sense of providing greater economic benefits [3]. [4] state that local communities who live in Langkawi will experience transaction process from the low-earned traditional life to modern life with a high rate of income
Summary
It is noted that tourism is one of the largest and dynamically developing sectors of the external economic activities. Tourism development contributes towards the enhancement of local communities in the sense of providing greater economic benefits [3]. Referring to the notion of transforming Malaysia into a well-developed industrial nation by 2020, tourism has been identified as one of the key sectors in catalyzing the social economic [8]. This background lays the fundamental objective for investigating all aspects of tourism development and economic growth, both at national and local levels. This paper aims to study whether the local community perceived a beneficial economic impact of tourism development and which variable dominantly affecting the local community
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