3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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)
9. 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
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http://books.google.com.my/books?id=59gXAQAAMAAJ.
2. Sharpley, R. (2000). The Influence of the accommodation sector on tourism development: Lesson from Cyprus.
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4. Goss-Turner, S. (1996). The accommodation sector. In P. Jones (Ed.), Introduction to Hospitality Operations
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5. Kelly, I., & Nankervis, T. (2002). Visitor destinations: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from
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9. Mitchell, N. (1972). The Indian hill-station: Kodaikanal (Paper No. 141). Chicago: University of Chicago,
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![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]
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