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Tourism sector is one of the world largest and fastest contributors to the economic sector. The recognition as UNESCO World Heritage City in 2008, has led to the city of Melaka to be the most visited city in Malaysia. There has been a great deal of research devoted to identify the tourist preferences in countries, regions, cities, and other areas. Such estimation is essential for producing comprehensive estimates of tourism economic benefits in an area. This paper presents an evaluation of tourists‘ preferences among domestic and international tourists visiting Melaka. 1000 tourists were surveyed using diary records survey method. The result shows the purpose of heritage and conservation is the most important factors that motivate their visit to Melaka, while business purpose is the least motivating factors influencing the choice of destinations. It is also found that young, single and professional tourist is the new target market in Melaka. Keyword: tourist preference, Melaka 1 Postgraduate Student (PhD). Email: syakirtrav@gmail.com 2 Associate Professor at KAED, IIUM, Malaysia. Email: mariana@iium.edu.my 3 Assistant Professor at KAED, IIUM, Malaysia. Email: syahriah@iium.edu.my 4 Professor at KAED, IIUM, Malaysia. Email: profmansor@iium.edu.my Syakir Amir, Mariana Mohamed Osman, Syahriah Bachok and Mansor Ibrahim Understanding of Tourists’ Preferences Pattern: A Study in Melaka, Malaysia © 2014 by MIP 82 INTRODUCTION Tourism is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world. While in Malaysia, tourism industry is the second largest industry with the main contributor to the economy after manufacturing sector. There are 25.03 million of tourist arrivals with total receipts of 60.6 billion in 2012. This amount represents an increase of 1.3% of tourist arrivals and an increase of 3.9% in total receipts compared with year 2011 (Ministry of Tourism, 2013). Based on the Economic Impact Report 2013 that has been prepared by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Malaysia generated 1,795,500 employments in 2012 in which 6.5% of total employment. This includes the employment in direct, indirect and induced sector in relation to tourism industry. In addition, the total contribution of tourism industry to is RM146.5 billion in 2012. This includes 44.6% from direct contribution, 15.8% from induced contribution while 39.6% from indirect contribution. This figure justifies Malaysia generates large opportunities to the local community involving tourism industry. However, the report by WTTC declares that Malaysia recorded below world average of total contribution of employment in tourism industry (below 1,975,000). In early stage of tourism development in Malaysia three decades ago, Malaysia had the opportunity to host the first Pacific Asian Tourism Association (PATA) Conference in 1972, followed by second PATA Conference in 1986. Later, Malaysia takes a serious step in promoting tourism industry by the launching of the Visit Malaysia Year campaign in 1990, and followed by state visit year, for instance, Visit Terengganu 2013, Visit Melaka Means Visit Malaysia and others. Therefore, the tourism sector has contributed directly to the economy of Malaysia. However, the issue on local economic benefits in several tourism activities namely accommodation, food and beverages as well as transportation in host destination is widely discussed. This subject is strongly based on purchase behavior of different market segment. Moreover, the inadequate supply in term of tourism facilities to the current demand effects various promotional tactics and decision process. Thus, the aim of this study is to give insight and understanding on existing literature on tourists‘ preference choice. The study deals with a state in MalaysiaMelaka, where received the influx of tourist every yeark. The paper will therefore comprise two main objectives: (1) to identify the tourists‘ profile (2) to identify the selection of destination preference choice among tourists. This paper makes an important contribution to the existing literature. This PLANNING MALAYSIA Urban Planning and Local Governance 83 © 2014 by MIP paper extends the knowledge of tourist profiling and preferences of Melaka context for which no related researches have been published. The paper is organized in 3 sections. Section 2 reviews the relevant literature and site background. Section 3 describes the data collection procedures. Section 4 reports and discusses the findings.

UNDERSTANDING OF TOURISTS’ PREFERENCES PATTERN: A STUDY IN MELAKA, MALAYSIA