TOURISM LIFE CYCLE : AN OVERVIEW OF LANGKAWI ISLAND Written By : Nurhajirah Abu Hasan

Butler (1980) came out with the Tourism Life-Cycle Model (TLC) (Figure 1) specialised to tourist destination with respect to the product life cycle (PLC) concept, with tourist arrival replacing sales of a product. This model discusses the development of a destination in terms of a series of life stages defined by infrastructures and number of visitors. At the first stage, it begins with the exploration stage, where only a small number of adventurous visitors will visit the area, moving towards institutionalized travel, with the numbers increasing in the involvement stage as local access and facilities improved and are advertised. In the development stage, the rate of tourist arrivals accelerates as the location is managed by external companies and becomes well known and popular. But the rate of tourist arrivals slows down in the consolidation stage, peaks in absolute terms in the stagnation stage with great reliance on repeat customers, only to fall in the decline stage as the destination is no longer fashionable, relying on a small geographical catchment area for day trips and weekends visits. All of these lead to an S-shaped logistic diffusion curve first popularized by Pearl (1925) working on biological data, unless rejuvenated (Butler 1980; Cooper and Jackson 1989; Haywood 1986; Keller 1987) by encouraging greater and more varied or new uses, or creating new attractions such as casinos or ski resorts. The TLC model has been extensively empirically validated with longitudinal data from various destinations involving hotels, theme parks, resorts, villages, towns, regions, and entire islands (Clary 1984; Cooper and Jackson 1989; Debbage 1990; Dewar 1983; Juelg 1993; Helleiner 1983; Keller 1987; Moffat 1982; Nelson and Wall 1986). The shapes of TLC curves have been shown to vary with factors such as the rate of development, access, government policy, competing destinations, and the changing nature of consumer tastes (Dhalla and Yuspeh 1976; di Benedetto and Bojanic 1993; Day 1986).

If a policy is established early in the tourism lifecycle, it may be possible that the area may never reach the decline stage. Steps have to be taken in order to maintain a desired position or to improve upon an unacceptable one. It is important for the management to control tourism development.

FIG. 1: THE TOURISM LIFECYCLE CURVE

A, B, C, D and E are possible pathways following stagnation that may be taken, depending on whether rejuvenation or decline occurs, and the rates they occur at.

In explaining the tourism life cycle model by applying to any destinations in Malaysia, this paper will discuss on Langkawi Island as the case study.

Tourism Life-cycle in Langkawi Islands: In the case of Langkawi, Sirat (1993) have done a study on tourist destination lifecycle that indicated as, tourism growth at that time which was seven years after the declaration of duty free status was stressed Langkawi as at the development stage. At that time, tourism was rapidly developed by the government and private companies. Visitor arrivals in Langkawi increased dramatically from 1987 to 1995, before declining for three years from 1996 to 1998. The Langkawi Local Plan (Figure 2) recorded an increase of tourists arrivals from 209,763 in 1986 to 1,835,245 in 2005, with the highest figure of 2,179,269 visitors in 2004. In 1996, a total of 130,178 visitors to Langkawi were foreign tourists. However, the effect of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and 1998 has reduced the figure to 84,076 and 89,221. The drop of foreign tourists arrivals did not just affect the Langkawi Islands, but also Malaysia as a whole and the Southeast Asian region generally. However, quick recovery actions by the government had attracted back foreign visitors to Langkawi to 192,987 in 1999 and 427,908 in 2000. Then, in 2002 there was another period of decline but was followed by increasing arrivals in 2003 and 2004 after the introduction of new attractions, such as the Langkawi Cable Car. However, in 2005, the number of visitor arrivals decreased sharply which indicated another downturn for tourism in the Langkawi Islands. Compared to the decline in 1996 to 1998, which was influenced by the regional economic recession, low arrivals in 2005 were contributed from high travel expenses, room rates and a less promising domestic tourism market. According to Marzuki (2011) several issues such as residents hospitality, economic impact and inconsistencies in development policy also caused the progress of tourism development in Langkawi to slow down.

Nevertheless, the State Government as stated in the Langkawi Local Plan 2001-2015 put some efforts to overcome the stagnation issue by adopting a sustainable tourism approach. The State Government suggests that sustainable tourism is vital to rejuvenate the tourism industry in Langkawi and allows it to compete with other international destinations such as Phuket in Thailand and Bali in Indonesia. Towards that matter, the declaration of the Langkawi Islands as the 52nd Global Network Geopark by UNESCO in 2007 was part of the government action to promote and introduce a new tourist attraction in Langkawi. As a result, tourist arrivals in Langkawi have increased in 2006 and 2007.

FIG. 2: LANGKAWI'S TOURISM LIFE CYCLE, SHOWING VISITOR ARRIVALS (MARZUKI, 2011)

(Million) 2, 500,000

2, 000,000

1, 500,000

1, 000,000

500,000

It is estimated that tourism development in the Langkawi Islands has contributed both costs and benefits of tourism to local residents. This perception is based on findings from principal component analysis suggested that local residents in Langkawi received more benefits than costs of tourism development especially in terms of socio-economic perspectives (Marzuki, 2011). Tourism development brought more economic benefits with an

increase in employment and business opportunities and improved local infrastructure. The study by Marzuki, 2011 also found that the tourism industry had provided opportunities for local residents to be involved in entrepreneurial opportunities. However, greater social and environmental costs were major concerns as they were evidence of cultural deterioration and negative impacts on physical development. Although the tourism industry had become the mainstay of economic growth in the Langkawi Islands, local residents remained cautious about tourism development. Such concerns, for example, came from the monopoly over local businesses by mainland Malaysians and the negative effects from that monopoly to the traditional sector. Nevertheless, the majority of local residents believed that tourism development in Langkawi has significantly improved their quality of life.

REFERENCES

Butler, R. W. (1980). The Concept of the Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for the Management of Resources. Canadian Geographer, 24: 5-12.

Clary, D. (1984). The Impact of Social Change on a Leisure Region (1960-1982). A Study of Nord Pays DAuge. In Leisure Tourism and Social Change, edited by J. Long and R. Hecock. Dunfermline, Scotland: Center for Leisure Research, pp. 51-55.

Cooper, C. and Stephen J. (1989). Destination Life Cycle: The Isle of Man Case Study. Annals of Tourism Research, 16: 377-98.

Debbage, K. G. (1990). Oligopoly and the Resort Cycle in the Bahamas. Annals of Tourism Research, 17: 513-27.

Dewar, K. (1983). Old Hotel Registers as a Tool in Analyzing Resort Visitation and Development. Recreational Research Review, 10: 5-10.

Haywood, K. M. (1986). Can the Tourist Life Cycle Be Made Operational? Tourism Management, 7: 154-67.

Helleiner, F. M. (1983). The Evolution and Decline of a Cottage Community in North Western Ontario. Recreational Research Review, 10: 34-43.

Juelg, F. (1993). Tourism Product Life Cycles in the Central Eastern Alps: A Case Study of Heiligenblut on the Grossglockner. Tourism Recreation Research, 18 (1): 20-26.

Keller, C. P. (1987). Stages of Peripheral Tourism DevelopmentCanadas North West Territories. Tourism Management, 8: 20-32.

Langkawi Development Authority, 2006. Tourism Statistic. Retrieved 20 January, 2006, from http://www.lada.gov.my/English/stat.htm).

Langkawi Municipal Council, 2005. Langkawi Local Plan 2001-2015. Department of Town and Country Planning, Ministry of Housing and Local Government: Malaysia.

Marzuki, A., 2011. Residents attitudes towards Impacts from Tourism Development in Langkawi Islands, Malaysia. World Applied Sciences Journal 12 : 25-34.

Moffat, C. A. (1982). The Development of Tourism in Nova Scotia. In Recreational Land Use: Perspective on Its Evolution in Canada, edited by G. Wall and J. S. Marsh. Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University Press, pp. 123-32.

Nelson, R., and G. Wall (1986). Transport and Accommodation: Changing Interrelationships on Vancouver Island. Annals of Tourism Research, 13: 239-60.

Pearl, R. (1925). Studies in Human Biology. Baltimore, MD: Wilkins and Wilkins.

Sirat, M., 1993. Pelancongan dalam pembangunan setempat: bolehkah ia kekal? Pulau Pinang: Universiti Sains Malaysia.