Tourism Destination In Malaysia Research Articles

Exploring the intermediary effects of TikTok on Generation Z’s visit intention

Short video applications, specifically TikTok, have been widely used in the tourism industry to engage audiences during COVID-19 and the post-pandemic era. However, there is limited research on TikTok's influence on domestic tourism recovery post-COVID. Guided by the technology acceptance model (TAM), social cognitive theory, and source credibility model, this study proposes a research model to examine the effectiveness of social media influencer TikTok videos on Generation Z's visit intentions towards domestic tourism destinations in Malaysia. 201 Generation Z Malaysians participated in the self-administered online questionnaire and data were analysed using IBM SPSS and SmartPLS 4.0. The study highlighted the significant mediating effect of self-efficacy in the extended TAM model, indicating the influences of TikTok-related perceptions and SMI credibility in enhancing the audience's self-efficacy to travel to the marketed destination. This study extends existing TAM research on utilising TikTok videos with SMI as a domestic destination marketing tool in the post-COVID-19 era, offering valuable insights to practitioners on harnessing the strengths of TikTok as an effective destination marketing tool and fostering a sense of self-efficacy among tourists, thereby contributing to the sustainable recovery of the industry.

THE RELEVANCE OF SCUBA DIVING ACTIVITIES AS A TOURIST ATTRACTION ON PANGKOR ISLAND

Scuba diving tourism is one of the tourism products that contributes to Malaysia's economic returns. There are three main issues underlying this research problem, namely the validity of Pangkor Island as a scuba diving tourism destination in Malaysia, the confusion about Pangkor Island's actual status as a scuba diving tourism destination in Malaysia based on tourism agency promotions and souvenir sales, and past studies conducted by local scholars. To obtain validity, several stakeholders were made respondents of the study, namely foreign tourists, local residents, and resort entrepreneurs. This study aims to identify the characteristics of tourist attractions on Pangkor Island based on the perceptions of foreign tourists and local communities, examine the involvement of local communities in tourism development, and the level of their knowledge about scuba diving tourism. Furthermore, it examines whether this activity is a characteristic attraction that drives international tourists to visit Pangkor Island based on the stated attraction characteristics and the scuba diving activity service offerings by hotel and resort entrepreneurs there. This study uses a quantitative approach and is supported by a qualitative approach. The research methods used are face-to-face interviews using questionnaires, observations, and in-depth interviews. The study's findings on 125 foreign tourists, 179 local communities, and 42 hotels and resorts show that Pangkor Island is not relevant as a scuba diving destination. All three stakeholders gave negative responses to this research problem. For foreign tourists, the main attraction stated is the beach and the sea, as well as the attractive natural environment, which is 71.4%. Local community interviews showed that Pangkor Island is not popular as a scuba diving destination, which is 52.0%, and resort analysis found that scuba diving package offerings are only offered by four out of 42 resorts and hotels on the island, and only if there is demand. The study's findings indicate that scuba diving is not popular as a tourist attraction there. Therefore, this study's findings reject the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) statement that places Pangkor Island as a scuba diving tourism destination. In conclusion, this research contributes to the academic discipline, particularly in service geography and tourism, and policy makers such as the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism.

Advancing Sustainable Tourism Development and Its Contribution to Poverty Reduction and Development: Perspective from Malaysia

The role of the Malaysian government in promoting sustainable tourism is evident in the existing legal and institutional framework. There is evidence that indicate that Agenda 21 have been adopted in the national master plan. Sustainable Tourism aids in making a minimum impact on the local environment and culture as its essential tourism vision is narrower. Not only that, it helps in generating incomes and bring employment in the local communities while conserving the local ecosystems. The national ecotourism plan in Malaysia was intended to provide a general framework to assist the government in developing the country’s ecotourism potential. Under the plan, the definition of ecotourism follows that of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Ecotourism is defined as responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas in order to enjoy and appreciate nature that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. As a result, quite a number of the tourism destinations in Malaysia have been gazetted as terrestrial or marine protected areas in various categories such as forest reserves, wildlife reserves, sanctuaries, wetlands and marine parks. In order to ensure the success of the eco-tourism plans, joint efforts between the various levels of government, the private sector and the local communities were planned and carried out to maximize the economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits it has to bring. Although Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism of Malaysia acts as a single coordinating body to spearhead the overall implementation of the National Eco tourism plan, the Ministry recognizes the imperative role of the private sector and specifies roles for all sectors of Federal, State and Local Authority, private business, NGOs and other players. The tourism industry contributed to economic development through among others, providing employment and business opportunities, infrastructure improvement and increased in foreign exchange and tax revenues. Even though Malaysia is a relatively new entrant into tourism activities as compared to its ASEAN neighbors, the industry has grown tremendously over the years. By 2020, tourism industry is a key foreign exchange earner for Malaysia, contributing to over 42% of the country’s balance of payment. The industry has provides an important source of income, employment and wealth to the country. Keywords: Sustainable tourism, Tourism development, Contribution to poverty reduction, Malaysia.

TOURISTS’ EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES AT TOURISM DESTINATIONS: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS

Experiential aspect of consumption has becoming more important in the era of social media. Social life has changed. Today, people are exposed to overflowing information; voluntarily or involuntarily. Almost everyone can express their emotional experience about tourism destinations, which may influence viewers’ response and their purchasing decision. Thus, this study was conducted to identify the salient domains of emotional experiences remembered and recalled by tourists in the online social environments. Content analysis method was utilized to uncover the common themes from 200 online reviews about tourism destinations in Malaysia. The study revealed the presence of cognitive and affective components in online reviews. It also discovered that tourists attributed their emotional experience to concrete factors, which include core (activities) and facilitating components (accommodation, food and beverages and transportation). This in-depth analysis of unstructured text reviews captured some clues about tourists’ emotional experience that would help tourism providers in developing strategies that can stimulates desired emotion, improve positive electronic word of mouth (eWOM) transmissions, which later may contribute to building a destination brand that resonates with its consumers.

Resources Confirmation for Tourism Destinations Marketing Efforts Using PLS-MGA: The Moderating Impact of Semirural and Rural Tourism Destination

This study presents a framework to empirically validate the relationship between the tangible and intangible measures on tourism destination marketing efforts. Uniquely, a case study was developed involving two different nature of tourism destinations (semirural and rural) and is incorporated into the framework to assess its moderating effect on the relationships among the predictors and destination marketing efforts. Two hundred and ninety-three usable responses were collected using a questionnaire survey. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was utilized to perform latent variable and multi-group analyses (MGA). The findings revealed that destination appeal was found to be the biggest concern among tourists visiting semirural and rural tourism destinations in Sarawak. For intangible components, both service quality and destination image were found to be significantly related to destination marketing efforts at a semirural tourism destination. Interestingly, for MGA results, it was worthwhile to learn that the relationship between service quality and destination marketing efforts happened to have a stronger impact on semirural than rural tourism destination. Hence, the proposed framework and research findings from this case study have provided significant insights that help various tourism stakeholders to better strategize and position semirural and rural tourism, particularly in the scenario of Sarawak, Malaysia. Future studies can examine this framework and test at other tourism destinations in Malaysia or in some other countries.

The Intersection of Self and Social Identity in Heritage Brand Destination

The recognition from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on heritage tourism draws destination tourists both international and local. Lenggong Valley (LV) is well-known with the Perak Man and archaeological sites. Since its discovery and inscription as one of the UNESCO world heritage sites in 2012, relevant planning has been established to develop the area as part of tourism destinations in Malaysia. Developing a brand destination is intricate in view of its multifaceted structure and multiple stakeholders with different interests that a destination possessed. The early stage for the identification of destination-brand identity is crucial in ensuring the involvement of its stakeholders, particularly the residents. The key reason offered by most of the literature reviews for destination branding is, this group plays important role in providing destination experiences to the tourists. The focus of this research is to give an overview and discuss how the self and social identity that underlie resident’s evaluation are intersected, which affects their interpretation on destination-brand identity. Adopting qualitative method and guided by the stakeholder and social identity theories, the data collection was conducted in two phases – (i) in-depth interviews; and (ii) focus group interview (FGI). The participants were purposively selected consisting of the headmen and some representatives of the female residents to represent the residents’ perspectives. Data was analysed using the 6-step thematic analysis. The findings revealed that residents’ conceptualization of the Lenggong Valley World Heritage Site’s identity revolves around the intersection between their self and social identities. Keywords: Heritage tourism, stakeholders, destination branding, brand identity, social identity theory.

Inquiries into critical success factors in governing small tourism firm in sustainable rural economics

Small Tourism Firms (STFs) has been acknowledged by scholars as one of the main features for tourism development especially in the area that received rapid urbanization. Knowledge on the influences of urban morphology with the specific references on tourism entrepreneurship had already started on the early 1980s. However, previous effort were only considering on the theoretical and empirical point of view and focusing on the classification of characters in comparison to other form of small and medium enterprises. The existing literature does not literally cover the understanding of growth and failure of STFs especially in the perspective of financial aspects. Thus, this paper examines the financial factor related to growth and failure of STFs that emphasis on the factors affecting the growth of STFs in the accommodation sector. Langkawi has been selected as the study area due to its superiority as one of the best tourism destinations in Malaysia. An in-depth interview method has been conducted with 10 potential respondents in representing the small firms. The result from the thematic analysis shows that aspects such as access to the loans, financial constraint and finance tendency were established in understanding the financial influence towards the growth of STFs. The critical success factor, from the perspective of financial is critical especially for the governance and coordination urban-rural towards balance development.

Transgenerational entrepreneurship and survivability in rural economy

Transgenerational entrepreneurship is the new theoreticalperspective that introducing the family capability to transfer entrepreneurship for generations. This paper investigates the relationship between family business, entrepreneurship and the rural economy. 18 entrepreneurial families in Langkawi island were selected because this community capability to develop the island to be a tourism destination in Malaysia. Data collected through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis was applied. As a result, transgenerational tourism entrepreneurship dimensions were created which are; survivability mindset, smallness, family cumulative entrepreneurship experience, entrepreneurship molding and goal achievement. The first dimension is the survivability mindsetwhere business life is the family life-line. Smallness is the second dimension that emphasizes the size of the business that expands on the family capability. Following is the family cumulative family entrepreneurship experience from the founder to the young generation. The next dimension, entrepreneurship molding for entrepreneurship nurture and retirement. Lastly, family goalsare to achieveresiliency and new generation expansion. Hence, the family prefers long term plan with a low-risk investment to create sustainable economic development. Development planning for the economy should not treat the local community as the second option but empowering them to be sustainable entrepreneurs.

Edu-Tourism Destination Selection Process in an Emerging Economy

International Edu-tourists seeking university education outside of their countries of origin was 4.1 million in 2010 and the figure is forecasted to hit 7.2 million by the year 2020, thus creating a market value worth US$342billion. Exporting university education services contributed US$6.6billion to Malaysia’s Gross National Income (GNI) in 2009. Malaysia plans to earn US$14.67 billion yearly from 2020, including, creating 536,000 jobs. This highlights the importance of international Edu-tourists for Malaysian Edu-tourism industry promotion. Explaining the stages international Edu-tourists go through to select Malaysia as their preferred Edu-tourism destination, including validating factors that contribute to this tourist travel decision form the basis of this study. The study is based on the push-pull theory and 500 international Edu-tourists in 13 Malaysian universities were sampled. Results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that Edu-tourists’ socio-cultural factors, the quest for career development, and economy status of their country of origin all contributed to Edu-tourists’ decision to study abroad. The socio-cultural and economic factors of Malaysia attract Edu-tourists to Malaysia, while the institutional and internationalisation attributes of Malaysian universities encourage them to choose these universities. It is suggested that tourism operators in Malaysia make the most of the attractive socio-economic environment in Malaysia for the effective positioning strategy of Malaysia in the global Edu-tourism market. Edu-tourism destination marketing strategies should be designed for Malaysia, using her socio-economic attributes. The reputation of Malaysian universities as essential Edu-tourism assets should be promoted to develop the Malaysian tourism industry. Tourism destinations in Malaysia should encourage social interaction between Edu-tourists and host destinations.

Perceived Destination Competitiveness of Langkawi Island: An evaluation

Destination competitiveness has become a critical issue and creates increasing challenges in the tourism market. A successful tourism destination should embrace an integrated approach towards the many components of the tourism system and the competitive advantage of a destination closely relates to the quality of the products offered, which means the tourist satisfaction experienced at the destination. This research note discussed the tourism destination competitiveness and highlight Langkawi Island as one of the competitive tourism destinations in Malaysia. These early findings indicated that the Key Success Factors and Perceived Destination Competitiveness are significant with experience investigating the travel revisit intentions to this destination.

The “Pearl of the Orient” as a dark tourism destination in Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of Penang in being a dark tourism destination in Malaysia with the influence of urban tourism development.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review was conducted to serve as a foundation by highlighting the number of dark tourism studies conducted in Southeast Asia (SEA).FindingsThe results projected a total of 23 dark tourism studies conducted within the SEA region. These papers revolve around the following key themes that were conducted in these countries: tourists’ behaviour (motivation, satisfaction and experience), nation building and narratives, dark tourism development (management, marketing and implications), theoretical underpinnings and the role of dark tourism. Amongst these, it was found that tourists’ behaviour is the most studied with eight papers while the least is on nation building and theoretical underpinnings of dark tourism with three papers each.Research limitations/implicationsThe lack of dark tourism studies in SEA results in insufficient existing literature which justifies the need of exploring Penang as a potential dark tourism destination.Originality/valueThis paper builds on prior dark tourism studies that are significantly related to urban tourism but takes a step further by exploring the Asian settings. Specifically, into Malaysia which is more than just an SEA country, but a multicultural one which is rich and diverse with its culture and heritage that leads to many unique tourists’ destinations. This paper extends the geographical scope of the dark tourism literature as it focuses on Penang in Malaysia.

THE EVOLVEMENT OF BRAND IDENTITY OF LANGKAWI ISLAND, MALAYSIA

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the brand identity development efforts of Langkawi Island as one of the most prominent and well-guarded tourism destinations in Malaysia. It will be viewed from the historical perspectives for the last 35 years since the 1980s until the present time as to how this involvement influences the formation of its brand identity and later, the existing destination image. Based on in-depth interviews with eleven different levels of managers of separate divisions for destination management organizations (DMOs) in Langkawi Island, Malaysia, theoretically, the findings provide an opportunity to expand the knowledge of destination brand identity development and the involvement of DMOs in influencing image making over time. Practically, the findings indicate three key important antecedents of brand identity development efforts related to: (1) the effects from multiple positioning themes and slogans, (2) the important of brand coordination, and (3) brand leadership issue. These empirical findings provide new insights into enhancing the theoretical aspect of managing a destination brand, including its close relationship with issues faced by destination marketing organizations in managing destination branding strategy. Thus, using the case study of Langkawi Island, the context of multiple identities or image fragmentation is important to be understood due to the different perceived ideas on how the image should be projected according to stakeholders and market segmentation.

THE EVOLVEMENT OF BRAND IDENTITY OF LANGKAWI ISLAND, MALAYSIA

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the brand identity development efforts of Langkawi Island as one of the most prominent and well-guarded tourism destinations in Malaysia. It will be viewed from the historical perspectives for the last 35 years since the 1980s until the present time as to how this involvement influences the formation of its brand identity and later, the existing destination image. Based on in-depth interviews with eleven different levels of managers of separate divisions for destination management organizations (DMOs) in Langkawi Island, Malaysia, theoretically, the findings provide an opportunity to expand the knowledge of destination brand identity development and the involvement of DMOs in influencing image making over time. Practically, the findings indicate three key important antecedents of brand identity development efforts related to: (1) the effects from multiple positioning themes and slogans, (2) the important of brand coordination, and (3) brand leadership issue. These empirical findings provide new insights into enhancing the theoretical aspect of managing a destination brand, including its close relationship with issues faced by destination marketing organizations in managing destination branding strategy. Thus, using the case study of Langkawi Island, the context of multiple identities or image fragmentation is important to be understood due to the different perceived ideas on how the image should be projected according to stakeholders and market segmentation.

Destination quality and tourists’ behavioural intentions: rural tourist destinations in Malaysia

Purpose – This study aims to examine the direct influence of perceived destination quality on tourists’ behavioural intentions and the indirect effect through satisfaction, in the context of rural tourism destinations in Malaysia. It also aims to investigate how tourists’ socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. previous visits, tourist type, etc.) affected their perceptions on destination quality, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Design/methodology/approach – Using survey methodology, 334 self-administered questionnaires were distributed by enumerators and completed by tourists at rural Malaysian tourism destinations. The questionnaires contained items on dimensions of interest and socio-demographic characteristics. Findings – A total of eight primary attributes namely, amenities, accessibility and logistics, core tourism experience, hygiene, information, security, value for money and hospitality contributed towards forming the construct, destination quality. Perceived destination quality signific...

Community Resources as the Indigenous Tourism Product of the Mah Meri People in Malaysia

This paper presents the significant role of resources which is utilized by the Mah Meri community in Pulau Carey, Malaysia to practice sustainable tourism. Preliminary study was conducted at Kampung Sungai Bumbon which is a well-established indigenous tourism destination in Malaysia. In-depth interview which was used as the qualitative data collection method helped the researchers to holistically understand the community resources which can encourage sustainable tourism practice. Natural tourism products like wood carvings and weavings are the main attributes which contribute to tourism development. This study reveals that the community is proud of its diversified environment. However, the community feels that their culture and tourism gradually facing great threat because of the scarcity of natural resources. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to existing literature in the indigenous tourism and community resources ground.

RURAL TOURISM 3.0: CONCEPTUALISING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH IN MONITORING THE ‘HEALTH’ OF RURAL DESTINATIONS IN MALAYSIA

With the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0, web servers are able to dynamically generate rich web information to internet users. The capabilities of Web 3.0 can be used in the tourism sector to manage the industry more effectively. One of the major forms of tourism that is gaining its momentum in Malaysia and requires efficient management is rural tourism. Nonetheless, in the last decade, the concept of rural tourism has melded with mainstream tourism and resulting in it losing its distinctness. Consequently, the tourism industry's growth throughout the years has created an increasing amount of stress economically, socially and environmentally. Hence, the development of a sustainable and responsible rural tourism is needed in fulfilling the objectives of all stakeholders in the system. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to conceptualise a framework to monitor the ‘health’ of rural tourism destinations in Malaysia using Web 3.0 technologies. A rural tourism prototype called the “Rural Tourism 3.0” is developed to assess, advice and monitor the economic, socio-cultural and environmental responsible impact of rural tourism destinations using an integrated real-time decision support system.

Service Quality and Previous Experience as a Moderator in Determining Tourists’ Satisfaction with Rural Tourism Destinations in Malaysia: A Partial Least Squares Approach

This paper examined tourists’ perception of service quality in rural tourism destinations on satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of previous experience on this relationship. Data from 309 valid questionnaires was analyzed using variance-based Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Perceived service quality has a significant positive influence on tourist satisfaction. Moreover, previous experience moderates the relationship between perceived service quality and satisfaction. The findings of this study offer some interesting implications for practitioners and researchers.

Tourscape: A systematic approach towards a sustainable rural tourism management

Tourism plays an important role in the Malaysian economy as it is considered to be one of the corner stones of the country's economy. The purpose of this research is to conduct an analysis based on the existing tourism industry in rural tourism destinations in Malaysia by examining the impact of economics, environmental, social and cultural factors of the tourism industry on the local communities in Malaysia. 516 respondents comprising of tourism stakeholders from 34 rural tourism sites in Malaysia took part voluntarily in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied based on path modeling and then bootstrapping with 200 re-samples was applied to generate the standard error of the estimate and t-values. Subsequently, a system named Tourscape was designed to manage the information. This system can be considered as a benchmark for tourism industry stakeholders as it is able to display the current situational analysis and the tourism health of selected tourism destination sites by capturing data and information, not only from local communities but industry players and tourists as well. The findings from this study revealed that the cooperation from various stakeholders has created significant impact on the development of rural tourism.

Rural Tourism at its Peak: Socio-Cultural Impacts towards Host Communities of Kinabalu Park, Sabah (Malaysian-Borneo)

The Kinabalu Park in Sabah (Malaysian-Borneo) represents multiple tourism opportunities for its stakeholders, host communities and tourists. Being the first World Heritage Site in Malaysia endorsed by UNESCO since 2000, this nature-based tourism destination is a popular tourism destination in Malaysia, as well as in the Asia region. The designated study area includes villages nearby Kinabalu Park. Through the popularity of the park and various other attractions within the area, tourism activities contributes to socio-cultural impacts towards its host communities. The perceptions and attitudes of the locals towards tourism are identified and evaluated. By having the input of host communities as part of conserving tourism whilst meeting certain principles of sustainable tourism, the paper aims to attain interesting findings about the perceptions of the host communities towards socio-cultural impacts of tourism on their community. The paper further aims to recommend for the continuous improvement of sustainable tourism development at Kinabalu Park and its surroundings.

Storage Stability of Fish Oil from Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Fish oils extracted from 6 species of marine fin fish caught from Pulau Tuba area, near Langkawi Island, a famous tourism destination in Malaysia, were evaluated for their oxidative stability during storage at both -27 and 4°C. The five fish species were “kerisi” (threadfin breams,sScomberomorus commersoni), “kerapu” (groupers, Cynoglossus lingua), “kembong” (Indian mackerel, Psettodes crumei), “gelama kling” (drum-croaker-jewfish, Pristipomodes typus), and “tinggiri batang” (Spanish mackerels, Scolidon sorrakowah). Results showed that stability of oils stored at -27°C was better than that of oils stored at 4°C. Iodine value (IV) of oils decreased during storage, while other parameters, namely peroxide value (PV), anisidine value (AnV), acid value (AV) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value increased. However, the rate of quality deterioration of oil samples was relatively low, as shown by very little changes in fatty acid profiles of the oil, meaning that both storage temperatures might be used for storage purposes of fish oil.