The role of academic field-trip organizers as gatekeepers for emerging heritage sites in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This article is the result of a multi-year study on the opinions of educators involved in organizing academic field trips to emerging heritage sites on the margins of the tourist gaze in Malaysia. Focusing on travellers from an architectural background, the study analyses the relative importance of tangible and intangible elements to the appreciation of heritage from a professional as well as personal point of view. By analysing the experiences of five different architect-academics who visited carefully chosen historical sites endangered by a variety of developmental or other threats throughout peninsular Malaysia, this study shows how potentially significant locations nevertheless require a careful curation of their narratives to attract visitor interest. It identifies the organizers of academic field trips as important gatekeepers for curating these narratives and highlights how long-term personal and professional development rather than a desire for monetary gain are powerful catalysts for local academics to evolve into cultural intermediaries championing authentic narratives for emerging heritage sites. Given the vital importance of domestic tourism in an uncertain post-coronavirus future, this study points to the need for the creation of long-term partnerships between academia and emerging heritage sites in Malaysia to fill an ‘authenticity gap’ threatening their survival.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational tourism
• gatekeepers
• narrative identity
• authenticity gap
• emerging heritage sites

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the staff from the School of Architecture, Building and Design, Faculty of Innovation and Technology, Taylor’s University (Module ARC 60106 – Design Studio III) who taught in the period 2014–2021 for participating in this study. The views expressed by the authors are their own, and do not reflect the official position of the university.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Keith Kay Hin Tan

Keith Kay Hin Tan is a UK-registered architect and the author of two previous books about the heritage of Malaysia's colonial-era Catholic mission schools. He obtained a doctorate in tourism studies from Taylor's University in Malaysia in 2017, and has subsequently published many scholarly articles describing the link between tourism, art and architecture. He is a senior lecturer at the School of Architecture, Building and Design at Taylor's University, and is also a member of the university's Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT).

Sze Ee Lee

Sze Ee Lee is a registered architect with the Board of Architects, Malaysia (LAM), and has previously worked in industry in Australia, the UK as well as Malaysia. She has more than a decade of professional experience in the design and construction of residential, commercial and educational buildings. She has been involved in the teaching of architecture since 2016.

Yen Huei Fu

Yen Huei Fu has nearly two decades of experience in the teaching of art and design subjects and holds a Master Degree in Contemporary Art and Design Practice. She is also an award-winning artist who has exhibited widely throughout Malaysia, and is currently a PhD candidate in hospitality and tourism studies.