POST-COVID-19 TRAVEL: FACTORS INFLUENCING MALAYSIAN TOURISTS' TRAVEL INTENTION TO VISIT JAPAN

Abstract

Japan is one of the popular tourist destinations. In 2019, more than 31 million inbound tourists visited Japan, and more than 500 thousand were from Malaysia. This number ranks ninth place in the world in terms of the number of inbound tourists for Japan. Therefore, Malaysian tourist is an important segment of the Japanese tourism industry. In addition, the Japanese government has identified the tourism industry as a pillar of the Japanese growth strategy and set a goal of increasing the number of inbound tourists to 40 million by 2020 and 60 million by 2030. To achieve this goal, factors influencing Malaysian tourists traveling intention to visit Japan should be clarified, and utilize the results for effective and efficient development of the Japanese inbound tourism industry. However, no previous study researched Malaysian tourists' intentions to visit Japan, so this research studies this area. Thus, this research studied Malaysian tourists living in Greater KL by utilizing the theory of planned behavior and the push-pull factors theory. The examined factors are personal attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and tourism resources. This research adopted the quantitative research method and collected a total number of 359 valid respondents, then analyzed relationships between the factors and Malaysian tourists' traveling intention to visit Japan based on the collected data. As a result, the researcher found that all mentioned factors positively correlate with Malaysian tourists' intention to visit Japan.