Future Plans for the Organisation

PERZIM follows the ICOM mission, and is shifting their role to become a modern museum
corporation. They have implemented many changes and programs over the past decade, and
are among a number of museums in the region introducing different activities and programs
for their visitors. One change incorporates ICT in the promotion of their museums to the
public, including the establishment of a Facebook fan page, and the virtual museum Malacca
website, which covers the eighteen museums under their management. These tactics aim to
attract more visitors to their museums, particularly the younger generation. Hence, more
engaging and interactive programs and activities are planned to be part of their
transformation. At the same time, they are still maintaining their primary role as cultural
institutions, and UNESCO World Heritage City status. PERZIM’s priority still focuses on
original collections and displays rather than on ICT applications.
In order for the museums to become competitive with other tourism products and services,
museums need to transform from their traditional role. However, some changes by PERZIM
have not been welcomed by cultural activists, who activists claim some of the transformations
promote and support colonisation culture. Also, the number of visitors to their museums is not
as significant compared to other new modern tourism attractions in the state, including the Eye
on Malacca and Taming Sari Tower (see Fig. 7.1.2). Therefore, PERZIM has to balance their
role between the modern and the traditional. In fact, the transformation of PERZIM and other
Malaysian museums is slow compared to other museums, particularly those in developed
countries. The Sarawak Museum has been talking about incorporating transformation to add
creativity and technology to their products and services since 2007. However, given their
distance from the federal government administrative centre of Putrajaya and the Malaysia
capital city Kuala Lumpur, it could take a longer time to obtain approval for these
transformations. Many commentators (Hoo 2006) have recognised that the Malaysian
government has too many bureaucratic levels, and is not transparent enough in implementing
their policies.
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Figure 7.1.2: Popular attractions in Malacca: Taming Sari Tower and Eye on Malacca
(Tourism Malacca Website 2011)
Organisation’s Mission
PERZIM’s museums are progressive in their implementation of new programs, in comparison
to other museums in Malaysia and the region. In recognition of the difficulty traditional
museums have in attracting visitors, particularly for the younger generation, PERZIM regularly
upgrade their products and services, and frequently introduce new attractions. For instance,
PERZIM add new experiential products like the Sleepover @ Museum program to give
different and better experience to their visitors, and to encourage repeat visits. According to
Stephen (2001), the experiences the museums provide to their visitors are important for their
survival in today’s world. With new ideas like the Sleepover @ Museum program, PERZIM
hopes to provide a different experience to their visitors, and importantly to educate their
visitors with new information using non-traditional approaches. This will help them to become
competitive and sustainable in the tourism industry.
Nevertheless, their substantial dependence on tourism industry could create a crisis in the
future. As the second smallest state in the country, fierce tourism development has brought
congestion and pollution problems over the past decade, and Malacca is also facing a
constant water shortage. Therefore, the state government is searching actively for solutions to
problems that could affect the tourism industry.
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Organisation’s Position in the Policy Context
The evolving museum sector means that the role of the traditional museum is becoming more
challenging. With competition from their neighbouring countries—particularly Cambodia,
Indonesia and Singapore—museums in Malaysia need to keep up with the latest trends.
Following the definition of museum by ICOM, the existence of Malaysian museums is
predicated on the principal aims of education, conservation, and preservation of history,
culture and natural history, as well as tourism (Malaysia Museum Department 2010). The
museums in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Sarawak and Selangor also are constantly organising
many engaging activities, programs and workshop for the public. Some of these programs
encourage more locals to become involved in the tourism industry by establishing their own
businesses so that they can generate their own sustainable financial resources.
Heritage buildings need a significant amount of money to preserve them especially with
Malaysian weather. Restoration alone will not going generate any income for the owner. With
limited financial capabilities, the survival of private entrepreneurs in this sector is doubtful.
Further, the Department of Museum in Malaysia constantly changes its home ministry.
Although the museum institution is closely related to tourism, it is currently administered by the
MICC. The divorce of culture and tourism in order to separate ministries since 2002 is making
cultural tourism operators lose their focus, who are confused about how to use their heritage
resources (Mohamed 2006, 29). The new MICC has too many responsibilities and
departments, and while their focus is on the restoration and preservation of Malaysian culture,
at times their functions and roles overlap with MoTour. For example, the minister of MICC
Dato’ Rais Yatim has constantly talked about attracting more tourists from the US, and
organised several cultural showcases in Washington during the Malaysian PM’s 2010 visit
there (refer to Utusan Malaysia 2010; Berita Harian 2010). While this demonstrates the
importance of tourism as one of Malaysia’s top three income-earners, their concentration on
the marketing and promoting tourism for the country, could create confusion among the public,
particularly among cultural tourism producers, about the overlapping roles and function
between these two ministries. Also, some other ministries are also talking about similar
concepts to culture and tourism such as, agro-tourism (Ministry of Agriculture), Malaysian
products and services (MITI), and health tourism (Ministry of Health).
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7.1.3 RQ2: What is the development path for Malaysian creative economy
enterprises?
This section responds to the second research question, and continuing the earlier discussion,
identifies four primary factors relevant to articulating the development path for Malaysian
creative economy enterprises. There are:
1. Top down approach
2. Local culture as the primary asset of the Malaysia creative economy
3. Limited funding assistance
4. New market expansion
1. Top-down approach
The content industries and the museum sector in Malaysia depend heavily on the
government’s directive and guidance. This top-down approach is being practised significantly
in developing their creative economy. For example, the growth of the content industries in the
country started significantly when the government announced Vision 2020, which led to the
development of MSC mega-project. The museum sector in Malaysia has always been one of
the traditional government institutions that safeguards valuable historical artefact collections.
All state museums in Malaysia are managed by the state government, whereas the national
art gallery, monuments, and museums are managed by the federal government. Although
PERZIM might be one step ahead of the other museums in Malaysia in terms of adopting
fresh ideas and ICT applications, they still manage their museums according to state and
federal government instruction. The General Manager of PERZIM has little power in making
important decisions, which therefore includes Malaysia in assertions by Lee (2010, 41-42) and
Keane (2007) that creative economies exhibit a top-down approach from the government to
the public. Other countries such as Singapore (Lee 2010), China (Keane 2007), the UK
(Oakley 2004), and Indonesia are experiencing the same scenario in developing their creative
sectors.
Although there are small numbers of content companies in Malaysia, they tend to work
autonomously, without following government’s lead, and their products and services are
almost unheard of in the local market. Normally, this minority industry—better known as an
“indie group”—market their products and services abroad or through new media and
untraditional ways. Private museums in Malaysia are insignificant, except for those operated
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by big Malaysian conglomerate organisations, including Aquaria and Petrosains, which was
established by PETRONAS. However, all museums in Malaysia face fierce competition from
other tourism attractions operated by the private sector, from shopping malls to theme parks.
In addition, those reluctant to follow governmental guidance may have difficulties gaining
government support. Presently, both LCP and PERZIM made a significant impact in the
market due to their close ties to the government.
However, I argue that the realisation of the potential of content industry—particularly the
animation sector—in Malaysia might emerge from the market itself. The local accomplishment
of the Gila-gila cartoon magazine sparked interest in the cartoon sector, which later led to an
animated television series and 3D films (Mahamood 2001; 137; Muthalib 2007). This success
generated interest in the potential of this new sector among the government and private
sectors, especially when some foreign products were found to be unsuitable for local culture
because of their negative effects on children. This prompted the government to start playing
an important role in developing, promoting and supporting the local cartoons and animation
that feature Malaysian culture. While the early animation sector in Malaysia was monopolised
by a government agency film (National Film), the private sector has been a key player in the
growth of the content industry in the country (Mahmood 2001, 137). Nevertheless, the
significant support from the government, with their friendly policies for the market players in
content industry, has placed Malaysia on the content products and services map (3D World
Magazine 2010).
At the same time, I argue that a new sector or concept such as content industry and creative
economy cannot gain widespread acceptance without the direction and support of the
government. This also gives confidence to the private sector, particularly small companies, to
venture into this high-risk sector. Without the guidance and support of government, small
companies will find it difficult to enter the market and compete with bigger companies, and
traditional sectors such as the museum sector need significant support from the government
to become competitive and sustainable in the market. As the majority of Malaysian
government museums do not charge high entrance fees, financial support from the
government is crucial for their survival. Countries that have been successful in creative and
cultural sectors through this approach include China, Singapore and the UK, although there
are ongoing debates in the literature about the creative sectors of these countries copying
ideas from other countries (for China, see Keane 2010), producing “output” rather than “input”
creative products (for Singapore, see Yue 2006), and the use of political motifs (for UK, see
Oakley 2004). Importantly, the Malaysian government should implement fresh and imaginative
policies that assist the growth of creative sectors and transform bring new relevance to
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traditional sectors. Imaginative policies can guide market players to become more innovative
with their products and services.
2. Local culture as the primary asset of the Malaysia creative economy
Local culture plays a vital role in the development of the Malaysian creative economy. As
demonstrated by both of the case studies in this project, multi-ethnicity, religion, food, and
language have been used significantly in animation and museum sectors. In terms of the
content industry, Malaysian culture has been featured on film, magazine, newspaper, radio
and television, and the government has encouraged local animation and content producers to
include local culture. Recently, Islamic influence also can be seen in animated series
produced by government agencies such as MDeC and RTM—for example, Ibn Batutta by
Radio Television Malaysia, and Saladdin by MDeC and Al-Jazzera—focusing on a worldwide
Muslim audience. Private animation companies like Animonsta (Boboiboy) and Handy Pro are
also following this direction. However, the Animonsta animation series has more Malaysian
local influence, compared to the other series, which bear significant Middle Eastern influences.
This is the dilemma faced by some of private content producers in penetrating the global
market. European and US markets require their content products to have more westernised
features (3D World Magazine 2010); consequently, their products are not categorised as
Malaysian products, and the public may not be aware that these are local productions; for
example, Transformers cartoon series was produced in the 1980s and 1990s by Lensamation,
which is now known as Lensa Film Sdn. Bhd.
However, Malaysian culture still dominates the majority of content products produced for local
and regional markets. To become competitive in the high-risk market, some companies also
adopt glocal features. In 2011, there are more local animated television series and films
scheduled to come out using glocal imagery. Boboiboy is the first superhero, 3D, animated
television series produced by the three founders of LCP. The story is about a Malaysian child
who can change into three forms and fight against bad people and aliens with his multiethnic
friends, and one Muslim character wears a hijab (Mohamad Zakaria 2009). Boboiboy has
resembles Ben 10, but incorporates Malaysian characters and storylines.
As a cultural institution, PERZIM’s major focus still falls on the traditional roles of museums.
Despite rapid global changes in ICT, this traditional role is still essential even though change
is necessary to make their existence competitive and viable in a market that competes with
other tourism attractions.
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Government and market players recognise the difficulties in competing with developed
countries that have advanced technology facilities and more financial support. Hence,
Malaysian culture has been utilised as the main tool for the Malaysian content and tourism
industries, because of its strength and uniqueness compared to other products and services in
the market.
3. Limited funding assistance
Competition in the creative and cultural tourism sectors requires substantial amounts of
capital. Development of ICT and cultural tourism require significant financial capital and
continuous funding assistance. As a small developing country, Malaysia has limited financial
resources, and while the country is still growing, it also needs significant amount of money for
other sectors. Therefore, creative and cultural tourism sectors have to work on a limited
budget.
Private companies like LCP need to raise their own capital and seek outside resources, rather
than depend on government funding alone. In addition, the recent emergence of the creative
sector in Malaysia means that raising support from local financial institutions can be difficult, a
factor that has been identified by the local market players, particularly new and small
companies. Very little financial assistance is available, and it is hard for these organisations to
compete fairly with larger companies. Although the government has been allocating special
budgetary resources and giving substantial support for the sector (Vicziany & Puteh 2004),
there are still many market players competing for the same funding or government projects.
Jarman and Chopra (2007) and Pandiyan (2009) identify the issue of lack of transparency
from Malaysian government in tenders for government’s projects and funding, while Sidhu
(2009) observes out that the government has restrictive bureaucratic measures in dealing with
creative sectors. Budgets and government projects are normally awarded to larger companies
such as KRU Studios. With KRU’s renowned name in content industry and their close ties with
politicians, the company regularly wins bidding for government projects and contracts. This
company has gained local market confidence in their capabilities for providing high quality
products and services in creative sectors. However, the government and private sector in
Malaysia should give new and small companies an opportunity to work alongside large
companies like KRU.
Larger companies also have the responsibility to include small companies in their projects. By
doing this, they train small companies to work in big projects and have their own income,
which will help them to become independent. These mentor and mentee practises are vital in
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new fields like the creative sectors. There have been positive changes in this field, with large
private local companies assisting small companies like LCP, but more attention should be
given, particularly in helping small rural companies.
Recognising the limited funding problems in Malaysia, government agencies such as MDeC
and MITI are helping small and new companies in the creative sectors to network with foreign
partners. This makes them more independent and sustainable (3D World Magazine 2010;
Plantec 2009). These companies are encouraged by MDeC and MITI to join overseas
exhibition and road-shows to sell Malaysian content products in the global market. From this
platform, they can network with foreign companies and raise foreign funds. As a result,
animation and content companies such as Handy Pro, KRU, and LCP have gained attention
from foreign companies. Today, these companies are working with foreign partners in China,
the Middle East, and South Korea to produce animation and other content products for the
global market.
As a traditional cultural institution and state government corporation, PERZIM depends almost
100 per cent on government financial assistance. Since their museums are non-profit, like
most other public museums, government monetary support is significantly needed (see Zan
2000). Subsequently, their transformation towards becoming modern museums is limited. For
example, museums in Malacca are applying new ideas and ICT features, but at a minimal
level. Most of display items still lack interactive activities. As a result, attracting more visitors is
a challenge, particularly the younger demographics. In addition, museums are facing tough
competition from other modern tourist attractions. This negatively impacts the stakeholders
and may prompt government budget cuts. According to Goulding (2000) the establishment of
contemporary museum is restricted in budgetary terms, and administrators are pressured to
increase attendance. Also, the museum sector in Malaysia falls under the control of the MICC,
since they are a cultural institution; but for marketing purposes, museums depend on MoTour.
This scenario means that Malaysian museums face the awkward situation of reporting to at
least two ministries, which can lead to much duplication and contradiction of duties (Pandiyan
2009). Also, Malaysian government should amend their policies to allow Malaysian museums
to become more independent in finding their financial resources, such as operating their own
souvenir shop and cafe. This will help them to become independent of limited government
budgets for their operation cost.
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4. New market expansion
With government help, the creative sectors in Malaysia are always looking for new markets to
penetrate. Both PERZIM and LCP work hard to remain relevant and sustainable in their
markets. The main marketing attention for both organisations now is in the Asian (including
Middle East) region, and slowly is expanding towards Africa and America. This is because it is
almost impossible to break into the European and US market, particularly in terms of the
cultural differences of content industry products, and large budget animation and film projects
from these countries (Rosnan et al. 2010). Focusing on the Asian market is a major current
strategy because of cultural similarities and the strong economic development in the region.
Also, concentrating on the Asian region offers a good platform for content products from
Malaysia to enter into Asian groups reside in Europe and the US. Similar strategies were
employed by the Indian, Hong Kong, South American and South Korean content industries.
Since the museum sector is considered part of tourism activities, their target market is also
including the European region, because Malaysia receives significant numbers of tourists from
Germany, Netherland and the UK, and these tourists like to visit cultural and heritage places.
Tourists from the UK represent the largest group of tourists outside Asian region in more than
a decade (Aziz 2009). However, the Malaysian government is also looking for other new
avenues to market their tourism products and services, and the US has been identified as one
potential target market. In 2010, the MICC and MoTour organised a Malaysian traditional
cultural showcase in Washington that was officiated by the Malaysia First Lady (Bernama
2010). This event received favourable responses from the private and public sectors.
The Malaysian government is also focusing on the global halal market. They are marketing
their wide understanding about the concept of ‘halal” in their products and services, including
through the content and tourism industries. Nevertheless, the government is much aware of
their competition. In diversifying the markets they promote, the Malaysian government avoids
dependence on only one market. Hence, their economic income will not be affected should
something happen to one of their major income sources. The market diversification is needed
as a backup plan, particularly in the high-risk content and tourism industries.
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7.1.4: RQ3: How do Malaysian creative economy enterprises utilise traditional
Malaysian cultural assets?
Three major issues pertain to the use of traditional Malaysian cultural assets for creative
economy purposes, namely, the role of technology; cultural history and cultural tourism; and
“halal” issues.
The usage of cultural resources in technology applications
As an animation production company, Les’Copaque Production (LCP) uses a high level of
technology creativity. In order to make their products different from the market they
incorporate Malaysian culture in their global products. This combination is called glocal
(Robertson 1995, 25-44), a term that started to get attention from the world community in the
early twenty-first century. In Malaysia, this concept has become commonly used over the last
five years. Currently, this is the image LCP is portraying, and has captured the Southeast
Asian market. Later, they translated their animated products into English. Their market is
becoming larger and more appealing to global audiences. With this glocal feature, their
animated products are then spreading out to Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia, making
LCP the most successful Malaysian animated series and 3D film producers in history, using
100 per cent local creative talent. Their market has extended to the Asian region, with their
television series screening on the Disney Channel and Air Asia in-flight entertainment. The
Malaysian multiethnic culture being the major image of their animation and 3D products shows
that the market can connect with their products. The world market today is becoming more
exposed to other cultures, an effect of globalisation.
Since the emergence of this sector, Malaysian culture has always been the main influence on
character and storyline. Hence, creative sectors in Malaysia are substantially influenced by
culture. As De Berranger and Meldrum (2000) and Cunningham et al. (2004) note, the Asian
and European (except for the UK) creative industries sectors are deeply rooted in cultural
activities and tradition. Their cultural strength and rich resources of many developing countries
mean that cultural sectors such as arts and crafts and heritage make up part of the creative
industries. Their definition and understanding about creative industries are different from the
UK and other western countries (Kong et al. 2006). Therefore, many developing countries
tend to follow the UNCTAD definition rather than that of the DCMS, because they want to use
their culture to develop their creativity sector.
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The contemporary animation sector in Malaysia started at the same time as the development
of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) began focusing on establishing a knowledge economy.
The model for this project was based primarily on Silicon Valley (in the US), and projects in
Japan and South Korea. Local culture also plays a major role in this project, when policies
from Silicon Valley, Japan and South Korea are not appropriate for local culture. Hence, the
Malaysian government has introduced some culturally specific rules and regulations
throughout the development of the MSC (see MSC 2010). This approach—known as cultural
protection—is still applied by the Malaysian government today. For example, although the
usage of Internet is not censored, there are certain sensitive issues relating to ethnicity and
religion that are not encouraged. To foster national identity, Malaysian companies are
compelled by the government to portray Malaysian multicultural and religious identity in their
products and services (Mahamood 2001, 139). In order to gain government funding, many
companies adhere to this guideline. Consequently, all early animated television series in the
country have these influences.
However, many series tend to have similarities to popular animated series from developed
countries such as Japan, and the US. This raises concerns among developing countries about
a lack of firsthand creativity, which is replaced by a second level of creativity that imitates
other products in the market (Keane 2004; 2007; 2010). For example, developing countries
like China, Indonesia and Thailand are known for producing imitation products. However,
since the progress of creativity sectors is hard to predict, it is important to keep track of market
responses. Further, most developed countries began by imitating the culture, products and
services of other countries, and creativity is arguably rooted in culture. For instance, one of the
earliest German animators claimed her first animated film was inspired by traditional
Indonesian and Malaysian shadow puppet shows (Citizendia 2011). The museum sector in
Malaysia is directly involved in merging cultural assets with technology. With the new ICT era,
the state government cultural institution of the Malacca Museum Corporation (PERZIM) is
transforming their role to become a modern museum institution. Modern applications involving
IT and innovation are being adopted by all museums under the management of PERZIM,
although newly established museums such as Malacca Maritime Museum have more modern
applications and facilities compared to their old traditional museums.
However, the museum sector is moving at a slow pace in Malaysia, and lags behind museums
in developed countries. Although, the creative sector in Malaysia has just been established, its
growth is faster than the museum sector. Innovation and the application of modern technology
are implemented at a minimum level by most Malaysian museums. Currently Department
Museums of Malaysia is administered by MICC, which already has too many responsibilities,
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including in some aspects of content industry such as film, drama, Internet, and television
production. This limits the budget that MICC can allocate to each sector under the ministry.
Consequently, the museum sector in Malaysia has hardly been mentioned by its own ministry,
and receives little coverage by the local media. The development of the creative industries in
Malaysia makes the position of museum sector more complicated to place, as it is at an
intersection between the creative industries and the cultural sector.
Cultural history and cultural tourism
Malaysia’s strengths include a rich history and natural resources. Since the eighth-century, the
Northern state of Malaysia, Kedah, and Perak, were administered by the early ancient Hindu
government, and their influence can still be seen today. Apart from the Hindu influence,
Malaysia was also shaped by Siamese (Thailand), Portuguese, Dutch, English and Japanese
colonisation. The country has thirteen states within two federal territories, and each state has
its own culture, and sometimes accents. Governed by a constitutional monarchy, Malaysian
politics are unique, with the “Yang di-Pertuan Agong” as a King and head of the country has
the obligation to act in accordance with government advice (see Heufers 2002). The King is
elected by nine Malay sultans and four governors, and rotated every four years during the
“Conference of Rulers”. Malaysia’s multiethnic culture and religion also contribute to the
country’s unique status. All of these factors attract significant numbers of international
investors and tourists every year, but Malaysia’s strength also can be their weaknesses.
Malaysia’s modern history involved conflict and bloodshed. In the wake of the Second World
War, during the transition from Japanese and British rule, Malaya was ruled by the Communist
Party of Malaya (CPM) for three months. After the return of British to Malaya, CPM was
disbanded, but remained active by hiding in the jungle until 1989, and engaging in guerrilla
attacks against the ruling government. The majority of CPM members were Chinese and led
by Ching Peng, they killed many Malay villagers, while the Chinese community helped the
CPM with information and food (History of War 2011). This has engendered suspicion
between the Malays and the Chinese communities, which culminated in race riots in 1969.
Since then, the Malaysian government has concentrating on building unity between their
ethnic groups, and is always promoting the country’s multiethnic and religion image to the
world, a tactic that has been particularly successful for the tourism industry.
Nevertheless, Malaysia’s tourism campaign sometimes raises heated debate with her
neighbours, particularly Indonesia and Singapore. In 2010, a series of disputes over traditional
dance—tarian pendet originated in Bali—were raised by small group of Indonesians, and
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consequently inflamed by the Indonesian media. After a series of demonstrations in front of
the Malaysian Embassy in Indonesia, there were violent confrontations with Malaysians
expatriates in Indonesia. Both governments met to discuss a solution, but even after the issue
was settled, UNESCO’s 2009 announcement that Indonesian batik was part of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity infuriated Malaysian batik producers. These incidents prompted
the public to ask the government to start patenting Malaysian cultural items such as food and
dances, which has caused friction with her other neighbour, Singapore. Regardless, Malaysia
still promotes their cultural uniqueness to the world. Conflict with neighbours will not change
their strategy to use culture in promoting the country.
The significant similarity between Singapore and Malaysia culture is unavoidable, since
Singapore was once part of Malaysia. Elsewhere, the majority of Malays—particularly in the
southern part of the Malaysian peninsular—originate from Indonesia. The debate on these
issues will never cease. Indonesians accusations of cultural plagiarism by Malaysia should not
be an issue at all. Every country or community has copied other cultures ever since human
existed in this world. Thus, culture is not exclusive to one community, and Malaysia is not the
only country to face this problem with her neighbours. For instance, China, Japan, and South
Korea each claim that Confucius originated from their country. The dispute over cultural
similarities is hard to resolve. Hence, Malaysian government is actively looking for potential
new markets and a unique national image. One of these new markets is the Muslim market.
The tourism industry has become the second major income for Malaysia since the mid-1990s.
Malaysia tourism campaigns use the country’s culture to attract domestic and international
tourists to visit, and Malaysia maintains its position in the top 20 most visited countries in the
world (WTO 2010). The country has the right combination of elements to attract tourists. Not
only are there unique multicultural and religious aspects, but the country has a low cost of
living, the majority of Malaysians can speak English, and world class infrastructure has
contributed to significant tourist numbers. Malaysia’s multicultural status offers advantages in
meeting the desires of tourists. The country is suitable for tourists from the West and East, as
well as Muslims and non-Muslims. The government decision to promote Malaysia as a
modern Muslim country with moderate rules and regulations (Kamin et al. 2008; Van der
Westhueizen 2004) is a good move, since non-Muslims—particularly from the West—will not
be afraid to visit Malaysia compared to other Muslim countries that have strict rules and
regulations. Realising the significant potential of Muslim market, the government began to
promote Malaysia as a tourist destination for Muslim tourists (Khalid 2009). Islamic imagery
has been used to market Malaysia to Muslim markets. At the same time, Malaysia also
encourages other tourists to visit the country by using other images like friendly people, good
food and a multiethnic culture.