IMPORTANCE OF SOFT SKILLS IN TOURISM INDUSTRY OF MALACCA MALAYSIA

Tourism industry is projected as a major source of income to the state of Malacca. Yearly, more and more tourists entered Malaysia and visited Malacca. At the same time, Malacca government is building more infrastructure and renovating historical buildings to attract and cater ever increasing tourists. Concurrently, more jobs opportunity is created especially in service sector. One component of service sectors in tourism is the frontline workers who serve and interact continuously with their customers, the so called tourists. Are they well-equiped and well-trained to serve? Tourists’ first impression may be based these frontline workers instead of the overall aspects of Malacca. Thus, this study is crucial to identify domains of soft skills salient to these frontline worker. Samples (70 male workers and 41 female workers) were selected from recreation centres and hotels in Malacca. An instrument named Inventori Kemahiran Sosial Pekerja Pelancongan Melaka is used to measure workers’ readiness. Data was analysed using SPSS software. Instrument reliability is between .85-.88. Findings showed that samples ranked soft skill components based on importance: knowledge and ethics (mean=4.3, SD=.70), personality (mean=3.9,SD=.68), language mastery (mean=3.6, SD=.49), and suitable apparel (mean=3.6, SD=.37).