The Application of Qr Codes at Selected Malacca Heritage Mosques for Interactive Educational Tourism

Abstract

Educational Tourism in heritage mosques is a form of tourism activity that emphasizes educational content to fulfill tourists' experiences and knowledge in heritage buildings, while interactive educational tourism is a form of approach using tourism activities, programs, historical, architectural, and cultural traits. However, interactive multimedia and technology features do not fully engage with the Malacca heritage mosques for interactive educational tourism, as tourists need to rely on printed materials, word-of-mouth by locals, or reviews from travel websites. These limited sources and non-updated information resulted in tourists being dissatisfied with the visits, hence not achieving their learning experiences, and less promoting of interactive educational tourism. Therefore, this study aims to introduce the use of QR Codes linked to online information websites at selected Malacca heritage mosques to improve tourists' learning experiences in historical and cultural heritage attributes and promote interactive educational tourism at heritage buildings. For this research, a mixed-method approach of questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview is used. and distributed using online and on-site approaches and the result of 350 surveys indicates that 44.9% of tourists agreed QR Codes can be used to access information about selected Malacca heritage mosques. 44.9% of tourists also agreed that QR Codes are viewed as a medium to access the content and as a ‘gateway’ to interactive educational tourism using digital applications. This is also agreed by the interviewees that QR Codes help tourists access information on selected Malacca heritage mosques through interactive websites that display updated and consistent content regarding the historical and cultural attributes of the heritage mosques. The study’s contribution lies in the effectiveness of using QR Codes as a platform to disseminate information about heritage buildings through interactive multimedia and updated sources on websites. This approach has been shown to increase tourists’ interest in using QR Codes, as evidenced by the feedback surveys and interview sessions. Recent studies and tourists’ survey feedback indicate that this approach enhances tourists’ information retrieval by providing easy access to interactive and updated content through QR Codes. This improvement facilitates experiential learning, personalized experiences, enriched visual engagement, and increased motivation for tourists to revisit the places.