Research Proposal

IDENTIFYING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL INFLUENCES IN DETERMINING THE

NATURE OF DARK TOURISM DESTINATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE HUMAN
TRAFFICKED CITY OF WANG KELIAN, PERLIS

MOHAMMAD SAIFULLAH BIN MAZLAN

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT)

Introduction
In order to effectively and consistently provides a multidisciplinary academic
perspective through which to scrutinise a variety of social, cultural, geographic,
anthropological, political, managerial, and historical issues, there needs to be a deeper
study on the socio-cultural influences on the nature that construct the dark space of
tourism. Many studies have been explored on the aspects such as the motivation and
the motive neither from the tourist's side nor the local community's side (Polus, Bidder,
& Jones, 2016; Dancausa Millán, Pérez Naranjo, Hernández Rojas, & Millan Vazquez
de la, 2019), but there are a few studies that solely focus on the influences of socio-
cultural factors towards shaping the nature of dark tourism itself. For instance, Sharma
(2020) has just not explained about the visitor's morals when visiting the controversial
sites. Still, she also suggested to look into the socio-cultural processes that influence
the tourists' and the communities' behaviour. Therefore, the idea demonstrates the
demand for more compelling historical references, narrative legacies, and populist
heritage attractions, especially in Malaysia's tourism landscape.

Through this perspective, a study that addresses informations from the communities
is really important in obtaining informations that are timely relevant in creating a
framework to strengthen the concept of dark tourism itself. Hence, based on the study
conducted by Bartis and Madlwabinga (2020), they agreed that by identifying the
socio-cultural impacts on tourism, a positive and negative outlook would help
determine the nature of the suggested dark sites. Therefore, this will help Malaysia's
tourism field to be internationally recognised and attract international tourists.

Research Objectives

Since there is little research that solely focuses on identifying the socio-cultural
influences in determining the nature of dark tourism, this study aims to dig into the
barrier and explore the relatable factors that predispose in moulding the concept of a
dark tourism destination. Listed below are the research objectives for this study.

I. To identify the factors that are affecting the socio-cultural influences among the
community in Wang Kelian tourism sector.
II. To examine the community's perception of socio-cultural influences towards
Wang Kelian as a dark tourism destination in Malaysia.
III. To evaluate the communities' participation in impacting the dark tourism nature
at Wang Kelian.

Literature Review Summary

Dark tourism is gaining popularity, as evidenced by a growth in the number of

publications discussing the subject and the number of dark destinations and visitors
visiting dark destinations around the world (Ramlee, Hussin, & Hashim, 2018).
Therefore, this descriptive thesis was written between the scope of communities'
socio-cultural impacts in Wang Kelian since it has been shown to benefit countries in
terms of their economic standing while also strengthening their socio-cultural element
(Tan & Lim, 2017).

According to Lennon and Foley (2000, as cited in Miller, Gonzalez, and Hutter 2017),
politics, economics, sociologies, and technologies affected the influences of socio-
cultural under the focus of dark tourism. Therefore, by identifying these factors, a
generalisation towards this study can be made to relate it more broadly to the bigger
picture, especially in the context of Malaysian dark tourism. Thus, discussing the
factors contributing to the influences to the community in Wang Kelian will provide the
social benefits towards the communities in Wang Kelian such as developing new
camaraderie and recognising the value of socialising with others (Jamin et al., 2020).

Prior studies have identified that dark tourism could negatively and positively affect a
community (Bartis & Madlwabinga, 2020). By examining the community's perception
of socio-cultural influences towards dark tourism, Chang (2017) figured out that the
community's perception was positively affected, especially on the emotional
experiences and geopolitical knowledge. Therefore, having such perception will open
more opportunities to Wang Kelian's tourism sector and be escaped from being a dead
city. Perhaps, having local communities' support and participation in tourism can help
reduce resentment between the local community and visitors (Aref, 2011).
On the other hand, according to Preety (1995, as cited in Aref 2011), there were seven
main typologies of community participation in tourism development. The typology,
such as 'participation for material incentives', acts as a catalyst to influence community
participation in impacting the tourism sector. Moreover, a study from Rasoolimanesh
et al. (2017) has included factors of participation such as residents' motivation,
opportunity, and ability to participate in assisting in the establishment of sustainable
conservation programmes and tourism projects by contributing to a better
understanding of community engagement. Additionally, the participation of
communities in the dark tourism sector could bring good things to the industry since
their abilities could occupy everything needed for the destination to grow.

Research Methodology Summary

To address the research questions, this session outlines the research design that will
be employed. It also presents a research method, research procedure and data-
analytic approach.

The use of case study research design is one of the examination plans that is
continually advancing over the previous years. According to Wahyuni (2012), a case
study can be defined as a research design that encourages a profound investigation
of a genuine contemporary phenomenon in its normal setting. Therefore, the
exploratory case study research design will provide a better understanding of the
socio-cultural influences on the nature that construct the dark space of tourism.

As for the research method, a combination of interviews and surveys will be applied
to get the data and information needed from the target audiences consisting of Wang
Kelian's community and tourists. The data were collected through a survey
questionnaire that will be measured using the Likert scale. Relation between the sense
of community and level of participation were measured on a 5-point Likert scale
(0=never 1=seldom 2= sometimes 3=often 4= always). For the interview data, a
content analysis method will be used to analyse and break down all the verbal
information and classified them into the selected themes chosen. Further analysis will
be done on the comments given during the interview session. Therefore, all the data
will be classified according to the research questions to generate findings for the
research.
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