Travel Career Patterns: The Motivations of Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim Tourists

Abstract

Indonesia and Malaysia have a combined population of ~225 million Muslims. Little academic work has been conducted on their motives for nonpilgrimage, leisure-based travel. Building on the travel career pattern approach for assessing tourist motivation, the this study sought to uncover the motivational patterns of Muslim tourists in this part of Southeast Asia. A combined total of 356 respondents from the two countries were sampled and the patterns of tourist motives between these Muslim tourists and data from previous studies of Western tourists were compared. Comparisons between the Malaysian data and the Indonesian data were also undertaken. The special importance of relationships, nature appreciation, and safety in the Muslim data compared to responses from Western respondents was identified. Close parallels between the Malaysian and Indonesian Muslim motivation patterns were found. The results were interpreted as highly consistent with Islamic teaching and the collectivist culture of the two communities.