Abstract
The spread of social and financial advancement in business environment of developing countries has instigated various expansion approaches, ranging from industry agglomeration to industry clusters, which refers to groups of interrelated firms located in a defined geographical area. Firms or companies that participate in cluster developments benefit from each other in terms of sharing the same territory, infrastructure and services, which has prompted encouraging responses from many industries, including tourism. The Malaysian government licenses intellectual property as well and promotes it to further advance the tourism industry in the country, particularly in the theme park sector. There are 16 theme parks and water parks in the country and 10 more are reported being launched in upcoming years. However, there have also been several closures among theme parks in recent years. Many previous studies have looked into the development of theme parks, focusing on many aspects, including cluster policy and concept, competitiveness, sustainability, safety and security, yet research that looks into cluster development specifically in Malaysia is still scant. The main purpose of this study is to examine whether visitors’ experiences of cluster developments at theme parks in Malaysia have a significant relationship to their intentions to revisit the park. A survey of 312 Malaysian theme park visitors was carried out using a questionnaire, and it concluded that visitors’ experiences of all cluster development dimensions had a significant relationship to their intentions to revisit the park. This finding contributes to an understanding of the importance of visitors’ experiences in theme park tourism and what this means to the tourism industry in the future.
Highlights
In the past, the business environment in developing countries has taken various approaches to spread social and financial advancement in the areas they are located in (Altman & Berman, 2011)
This study examined the relationship between cluster development dimensions and intentions to revisit in theme park settings
This relationship was studied from the perspective of visitors to selected theme parks in Malaysia
Summary
The business environment in developing countries has taken various approaches to spread social and financial advancement in the areas they are located in (Altman & Berman, 2011). There are many different approaches for regional economic development, ranging from industry agglomeration to industry clusters (Bekele & Jackson, 2006). Porter (2000) stated that industry clusters of like-minded businesses and talents in a specific geographic area have existed for centuries in cities, which became known for their specialisations. An industry cluster is defined as a geographically proximal group of interconnected enterprises associated with institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities (Porter & Kramer, 2011). A cluster refers to a group of interrelated firms located in a definite geographical range (Talib & Hassan, 2015). UNIDO (2016) pointed out that usually companies that form clusters are partaking of the same territory, infrastructure, services and, in numerous cases, shared cultural identity and social values
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