People's Impressions of a Tourist-Historic District Jenny

People’s Impressions of a Introduction Tourist-Historic District An increased concern for local identity has Jenny Ernawati, University of influence a historical change from modernism to postmodernism in urban design and planning ((Tiesdell, Oc Brawijaya, Indonesia & Heath, 1996). While modernist planning tended towards the universal, postmodernism and contemporary urban design and planning draws more upon the sense of place, Abstract the significance of the local and particular (Robins, 1991). A notion of ‘the past’ as an important element of The combination of tourism industry and historic district is a local identification has been referred to by many authors complicated phenomenon. Many built heritage, particularly (e.g. Harvey, 2000; Herbert, 1995; Hewison, 1987; in developing countries, are found in the middle of living Lowenthal, 1985). Since built heritage has a potential for communities. Uncontrolled development of residential enabling people to make ‘a journey to the past’, historic settlements in historic districts can destroy a city’s heritage sites usually attract many tourists. With such economic assets and its tourist potential, while turning historic potential, historic sites linked to urban policies as a product precincts into ‘urban museums’ can destroy a city’s living to generate tourist activities is a worthwhile contribution to social fabric. So, for these countries, this kind of situation urban economic development. often fundamentally becomes one of the problems of These situations raise the notion of urban development. However, historic area, as a tourist redevelopment of the sites in order to attract visitors, both destination and people’s settlement, should evoke a sense domestic and international. Unfortunately, in developing of delight and pleasure for residents as well as visitors. countries, where the majority of people living in these areas From a practical standpoint, knowledge gained from visitor are middle to low income people due to a tendency for impressions can assist local bodies involved in historic complexes being surrounded by dense residential management of these sites to convey a favorable settlements (kampong), urban redevelopment of the areas impression to visitors. Meanwhile an understanding of leads to the possibility of community relocation. Relocating resident impressions is important to provide a good living people to other places may destroy the living social fabric environment for the local community that is also conducive of the local community. to tourism. This paper addresses these issues. It will assist An historic district, without a doubt, if it is to be environmental designers and policy makers to develop successful as a tourism site, requires great care in historic districts that are beneficial for local people as well planning, development and management. In the as for tourists. conservation and development process, not only historic Kampong Taman Sari, Yogyakarta, Indonesia that faces environments need to be safeguarded, but also the those problems was considered as appropriate to be communities that inhabit them (Orbasli, 2000). selected as a case study site. The case study was done as In response to this, questions now arise in preparatory to the main body of the research. The study tourism literature about how to achieve a balance between purposed to identify salient dimensions of people’s the expectations of tourists in respect of the totality of the impressions of historic districts. tourist experience and those of the community (Trotter, This research used a multiple-method survey research 2001). A review of the literature also reveals that historic design, included participant photography and survey conservation may become a pressure on the local questionnaire involving the semantic differential method. community, especially if it is treated as a product of A total of 306 people rated nine consensus photographs, tourism. Local people, who live in an historic area, interact which were gained from the participant photography. with these structures directly in their everyday lives. Factor analysis was employed to answer the research Therefore, there is a need to understand the questions. interdependencies that exist between the community and the historic structure. Such understanding will point to the possibility of using the positive efforts of local people as an 2 integral part of the ‘historic locus’, to contribute vitality to leisure and tourism industry is defined as heritage tourism the site and thereby assist in the maintenance of an (Hewison, 1987). It is identified, in industry terms, as a atmosphere conducive to tourism (Ashworth & Turnbridge, subset of cultural tourism (Trotter, 2001). One main form of 1990; Schulz, 1980). heritage tourism is historical tourism, which maintains Therefore, local people as well as tourists play historically accurate places and objects as evidence of important roles in the development and maintenance of cultural, social and historical characteristics of a place or its historic remains. Urban management of the historic people, such as historic precincts and sites. Historic district environment should be based on a thorough understanding as a tourism object is known as tourist-historic districts. of the place and the evaluation of the local people (Orbasli, The term “historic district” employed here, 2000). The perceived quality of tourist-historic districts therefore, is understood to be a cluster of historical depends on the evaluation of the tourists and host buildings where not only the individual units themselves but community. also their concentrated continuity as heritage (Naoi et al., However, this has not been a focus of previous 2006). It focuses on areas which retain their historic studies. Although some researchers have looked at the integrity and cohesion as districts, rather than being host community to have a more balanced study, most of determined by size. This kind of historic districts could be them deal with the tourism impact on those communities. regarded as the object of the collective gaze, in which the The importance of the local people’s points of view as a presence of other people is necessary to give atmosphere valuable resource in the process of planning and to the experience of a place (Naoi et al., 2006). management of urban historic districts is still neglected. The aim of urban design, particularly for historic The aim of this research was, therefore, to environments, should be to create experiential and identify factors that underlie people’s impressions of tourist- enjoyable places for the public. As nowadays historic sites historic districts and to examine the visual quality of the and historic precincts are becoming increasingly popular as district. It is assumed that an understanding of people’s tourist destinations (Trotter, 2001), these places have impressions is important to maintain a quality living become a product that can be marketed, sold and re- environment for the local community while knowledge created (Orbasli, 2000). They are seen as assets, readily gained from tourist impressions can assist management of transformed into products that are sold to consumers these sites to convey a favorable impression to visitors. seeking an “experience”. Therefore, knowing about user reactions to the quality of this historic built environment A Tourist-Historic District: Kampong allows the planning and design of responsive Taman Sari, Yogyakarta, Indonesia environments. By shaping the physical and spatial form of these tourist-historic environments, urban design, in turn, Every city consists of a series of parts such as affects the experience of many observers. districts. These parts of a city have different attributes and Kampong Taman Sari, Yogyakarta, Indonesia is dominant characteristics that make them able to be a prime example of a tourist-historic district that faces the distinguished from each other (Spreiregen, 1965). These problem of development. Yogyakarta is a well-known districts vary considerably in their strength of character. tourist destination city that is located in the centre of the One of these kinds of districts is the urban historic Island of Java, the most densely populated island in environment. Such districts have historical value and Indonesia. It is one of the most densely populated cities in meaning that may be able to communicate to people the world (Dahles, 2001). Many people live in high density, something about the history of the city. Architects, urban unplanned housing areas that are called “kampong” planners and designers can recognize those qualities to (Devas, 1981). On the other hand, Yogyakarta was the improve appearance and urban quality of cities. centre of the Mataram Kingdom. The first king, Sultan The phenomenon in which the cultural, historical Hamengku Buwono I, began the building of Kraton and ethnic components of a society or place are harnessed Yogyakarta, the Yogyakarta Palace, which was to occupy as resources to attract tourist, as well as to develop a the extensive 140 hectare site (Kedaulatan Rakyat, 1996), 3 in 1756 (Brongtodiningrat, 1978) and completed it in 1757 ‘manner in which the products of their efforts are perceived (Dahles, 2001). The Kraton was surrounded by walls of by the public’ (Ittelson, 1973, p. 162) since perceived around 1-1.3 kilometers in length on each side, which were environment has critical influences on people’s choice and in turn protected by a moat (Brongtodiningrat, 1978). In the behavior. inner city

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