Introduction. With the transformation of Kuala Lumpur as a mega city and the boom of Malaysian urban tourism, understanding the interaction between tourism and local community livability is important for sustainable urban tourism development.
Material and methods. Founded in 1899, Kampung Bharu is a famous traditional Malay village facing conflicting urban development and local community livability issues. Thus, to understand the local community perception of urban tourism development and its effect on their quality of life, this study investigates the effect of sustainable tourism development on the local Kampung Bharu community’s quality of life. This study collected 364 valid responses from the local community through a self-administered survey.
Results. The study confirms that economic and environmental impacts of urban tourism development deteriorate the local community’s quality of life. However, the socio-cultural impacts of urban tourism development positively and significantly enhance the quality of life of the local community in Kampung Bharu.
Conclusions. The study highlighted the importance of the local community’s perceptions, community attachment, and perceived quality of life to destination managers responsible for planning and developing future tourism projects. Several limitations and recommendations for future research are presented.
