Conservation Value Of A Living Heritage Site On Penang Island, Malaysia
George Town is the capital of Penang Island, a town of rich and diverse history which reflect the cultures brought by the trade-winds since the 18th century. Many of the heritage buildings and the businesses or activities, that took place within them still survive until today, many of which invol...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12413/1/FEP_2009_10A.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12413/ |
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| Summary: | George Town is the capital of Penang Island, a town of rich and diverse history
which reflect the cultures brought by the trade-winds since the 18th century.
Many of the heritage buildings and the businesses or activities, that took place
within them still survive until today, many of which involve skills passed down
through the generations, making George Town a town with a ‘living’ heritage.
The objectives of this study were to estimate the value of Penang Island
households’ willingness to pay for the conservation of a living heritage in George
Town, and to identify the determinants of the willingness-to-pay. This study
aimed to add to the scarce literature of this type of research, and reduce the
dependence on benefit transfers for cultural heritage goods, which are often sitespecific,
and therefore unsuitable.The Stated Preference (SP) method of Contingent Valuation (CV) was applied in
this study, concentrating on the living heritage existing within inner George
Town, covering about 3,700 pre-colonial shophouses. A total of 320 in-person
interviews of citizens of Penang Island were conducted in the first-quarter of
2006, out of which 283 questionnaire responses were usable.
The results showed that the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) can be
successfully applied to value a living cultural heritage in Penang Island, where
the mean willingness-to-pay for the conservation of inner George Town’s living
heritage is about RM94.50 as a once-off contribution amount. The results showed
that attitudinal aspects like interest and concern for the condition of the ‘living’
heritage play an important factor in the probability that respondents would be
willing-to-pay for its conservation, together with the respondents’ level of
income. Behavioural aspects like knowledge regarding the heritage, frequency of
visits, and emotional regard for the heritage are not significant to the probability
that the respondents would be willing to contribute towards the heritage
conservation.
The results of this research can be used by policy-makers and NGOs to rank the
importance of conserving the ‘living’ heritage relative to competing projects, and
help improve the management of heritage conservation and resource allocation. |
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