Street Art as Tropical Heritage in Semeling: Emplacing Rural Tourism in Kuala Muda District, Malaysia

Serving as a form of aesthetic enhancement, street art encompasses artistic activities created on buildings within urban areas. Street art has become a drawcard for heritage tourism in Malaysia. This art frequently incorporates motifs of tropical flora and fauna, along with symbols from Malay and other ethnic groups, to accentuate its distinctiveness. The colours used are vivid and contrasting to highlight the tropical atmosphere as alive and fresh. Street art in Semeling, a town in Kuala Muda District in the northwestern state of Kedah, Malaysia, emphasises elements of history, culture, and nature that highlight tropical themes, as well as various popular culture characters and memes. However, Semeling, unlike, southern Peninsula Malaysia towns, receives few tourists. The town’s street art holds potential to enhance heritage tourism and cultural understanding in this more remote tropical rural landscape. Importantly, street art enhances the town’s sense of place with its tropical environment, history, and culture, thus offering a form of heritage tourism that is emplacing rather than displacing of local residents.