Abstract. Cameron Highlands was discovered in 1885 and was developed as a hill station. It first served as a quaint retreat destination for the British residence where the urban morphology of its little town centres were strongly characterised by colonial architecture such as bungalows, institutional buildings and government offices, shophouses and market stalls. Eventually due to economic pressure and location potentials, more land was opened for tea plantations and vegetable and flower industries. Conversely, recent rapid uncontrolled developments in the built environment and agricultural sectors have tarnished its natural environment, old-world charm and historical values. If this trend persists, the popularity of Cameron Highlands as a vacation destination for local and foreign visitors may be badly affected. This research paper seeks to determine the perception of local stakeholders and tourists of the development in Cameron Highlands and whether they agree that agro-ecotourism can be used as a tool to achieve sustainability in the area. This paper is an assessment of a pilot test to determine initial perceptions toward Cameron Highlands development. The pilot test sample size was 41 respondents, comprising local authorities, local communities and NGOs, as well as local and international tourists. The results showed that the majority agreed that agroecotourism can generate a sustainable income and preserve the environment while ensuring sustainability through fair trade.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impacts that the adaptive reuse of historical building has on museum service quality by analysing the visitors’ expectations and perceptions through the HISTOQUAL model. It looks deeper into investigating the enhancement of adaptive reuse approach to historical buildings not only to the surrounding environment, but also to the building’s cultural significance. Design/methodology/approach A field survey implementing quantitative approach was conducted by using questionnaires to collect the visitors’ expectations and perceptions on their visits to the selected case study sites. The selected two case study sites are both newly adaptive reuse museums located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Through these case studies, the visitors’ expectations and perceptions were analysed and the differences were identified. Findings Positive feedback on the level of service quality provided at both museums indirectly shows the success of adaptive reuse initiative on the historical buildings towards adapting their new functions as a museum. It was also noted that foreign language leaflets and facilities for less able visitors were among the two service criteria that do not exceed the expectations of users. In general, these findings are crucial in identifying the gap within the services provided and appropriate measures that can be undertaken for further improvement. Research limitations/implications Further study can be employed to a larger population of study to cater for a variety of perspectives from both users and managers of the buildings. Practical implications This paper highlights the implications of users’ feedback towards building usability and functions. It provided imperative findings from the users’ point of view pertaining to the services provided. Social implications The paper illustrates the significance of social perceptions on the implications of service delivery. It also reports empirical evidence in highlighting the importance of users’ attributes towards excellent service delivery. Originality/value Up to present, there exists a small number of studies that look into reviewing the new functions of adaptive reuse buildings. This study now contributes to create a larger number of studies in this scope, especially within the context of Malaysia.

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The heritage of Lembah Bujang, Kedah is important as a starting point to understand the origins and history of civilization in Malaysia. This research is to analyze the spectral reflectance of shrines properties in an identified area by using remote sensing techniques in conserving this cultural heritage site. The remote sensing device (Spectroradiometer) was used to measure the spectral reflectance of the source of shrines in the study area. This tool was applied for reflectance’s test over properties such as ancient brick, granite, literates and iron in a different two study areas consist of Lembah Bujang and Kompleks Sungai Batu. Remote sensing test properties demonstrate that discrimination of properties types of each civilization is possible through reflection measurement, but that discrimination is complicated by surface conditions, such as weathering and lichen growth. Comparison between clays, granite and iron show that clays to be more reflective than granite and iron. This result will help more in our further study on detecting these properties direct through remote sensing imagery and will be helpful in developing new indexes and selection of threshold value on shrines material in the case study of Lembah Bujang.

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