ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general overview of some of the relationships between tourism and culture in Malaysia. Despite the fact that tourism has developed rapidly in Malaysia during the past decade, there has been little attempt to examine sociologically some of the actual and probable consequences of tourism development for Malaysian culture and society. An examination of Malaysian culture also requires us to consider the sorts of images which tourists, especially foreign ones, are encouraged to construct of the country and its people, or those images which serve to reinforce established views and prejudices. The more active kinds of ethnic tourism are only a small part of Malaysian interests, although this is growing with the emergence of small tour companies offering specialist adventures. Most foreign tourists in Malaysia go principally to the already highly urbanised parts of the country, which are populated to a significant degree by Chinese and to some extent Indians.
