Oral Story as Source for Tourism: A Comparative between Malaysia and Singapore

This essay will discuss the role of oral literature in Malaysia and Singapore’s tourism. Oral literature, either in the form of common short stories, or in the form of legends has a wider function in the contemporary era. In the past it was a tool of entertainment. However today it has become a point in attracting tourists. Looking at Mohd Khalid Taib’s (1991) and Trevor’s (2009) views, this essay intends to present a few oral stories that have been attracting tourists to Malaysia or Singapore. From Malaysia’s side, the stories chosen are from Pulau Langkawi and Gunung Jerai in Kedah. While in Singapore the focus is on a few islands that have become tourist locations. The second objective of this essay is to look into how the oral stories are used as attractions and later uploaded to websites, or how the story is rewritten at a certain place or built as a monument to give a visual picture of the story. This comparative approach allows to inspect how these oral literature is manipulated for tourism purpose