Badaruddin Mohamed

Involvement and brand equity: a conceptual model for Muslim tourists

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present a model in which the relationship between Muslims’ involvement with traveling to Islamic destinations and Islamic destination brand equity is investigated. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the existing theoretical and empirical research on involvement and brand equity in tourism marketing and the literature on Muslim tourists’ needs and culture, a conceptual model for Muslim tourists is developed. The model investigates the relationships between Muslims’ psychological motivations for traveling to Islamic destinations and the evaluation of destination Islamic brand. Findings – The study shows that the more Muslims are involved in traveling to Islamic destinations, the more likely they evaluate the key dimensions of destination Islamic brand. This is demonstrated by the influence of Muslims’ involvement on their awareness of Islamic destinations, their image of the Islamic destination attributes, the perceived quality of Islamic offerings, the perceived Is...

The tourism life cycle: an overview of Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the tourism life cycle of Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The paper seeks to investigate the stages of life cycle that the island has passed through and at what stage the island is in today. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle model as the research framework to describe the characteristics of each stage of the island’s tourism life cycle and determine the time scale of the stages. The evidence presented in the stages is derived from secondary sources dating from 1642 to present. Findings – The findings indicate that the tourism life cycle in Langkawi Island has undergone four stages of development and that it is currently in the consolidation stage. Numerous characteristics suggested by Butler’s model for each stage are clearly discernible in the island’s tourism growth. The government serves as the major player and catalyst for tourism expansion in the island from one stage to the next. Practical implications – It is...

Influence of scuba divers' specialization on their underwater behavior

Purpose – This study aims to examine the relationship between recreation specialization and divers underwater behavior in Perhentian Island.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a pilot survey on 50 divers in Perhentian Island. In‐depth interviews with several dive operators were also conducted to support the findings.Findings – Specialized divers tend to recognize unacceptable behavior rather than less specialized divers. Skilled specialized divers tend not to touch the reefs and not to collect dead pieces of the corals compared to less skilled divers.Practical implications – Specialization and skills of divers can be used as an input to study diver underwater behavior while simultaneously providing insights on coral preservation.Originality/value – It is important to manage diver behavior as there are now several diving operators who offer unlimited diving packages catering to day and night diving from shore. Divers can minimize their impacts by practicing responsible diving behavior....

Relationship between nationality and tourists’ behaviour: case of Middle East tourists in Malaysia from tour guides perspective

Increasing number of Middle Eastern tourist arrivals in Malaysia, makes studying their behaviour to be fundamental for sustainability of this valuable market segment. Concerning nationality as one of the influential factors in tourist behaviour, implies that Middle East cannot be concerned as one unit. Literature includes only Arabs as Middle Eastern and non-Arabs Middle Eastern were totally forgotten, and the result of tourists’ behaviour from certain countries in Middle East was over generalised to all tourists. The overall purpose of this paper is to study Middle East tourists’ behaviour according to their nationality from tour guides’ perspective. The qualitative method was applied by semi-structure snowball interview with nine tour guides. The interview questions were around seven areas; interactions, activities, knowledge, expenditure, time arrangement, respectfulness and facilities preference. The result shows some significant differences although the similarities cannot be ignored. This study would help different marketing campaigns according to different behaviour.

Expectations and experiences gap for Penang Island tourists: an application of the HOLSAT model

This study adapted the holiday satisfaction model to assess the satisfaction level of tourists in Penang Island, Malaysia, with regards to 20 holiday attributes, by measuring the gap between experiences and expectations of the same attributes. The attributes were categorised into four groups, namely accessibility, accommodation, tourist amenities, and food/meals. The results were drawn from a questionnaire survey of 4,170 tourists who visited Penang Island in 2014. The data were analysed quantitatively using matrices. The mean score of expectations was then plotted onto a two-dimensional axis against the mean score of experiences. The significance of the results was determined using the paired t-test at a scale of 1:1000. The patterns of tourist satisfaction and dissatisfaction were detected and findings provided important insights for tourism stakeholders to take measures to provide better services and facilities to improve the experience of tourists visiting the island.

The Healing Village of Malaysia: from Local Wisdoms to Implementation

Rapid urbanization, hectic lifestyle, and increased cost of living, have resulted significant impacts to the mental and physical well-being of Malaysians in general, especially those living the urban areas like the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, and the heritage cities of Penang and Malacca. These have resulted to the much needed demand for recuperation and revitalization. While, more and more types of healing therapies such as Balinese Spa, Thai Massage, Swedish Spa and Turkish Bath, dominating the healing market in Malaysia, the state of art of the Malay traditional spa is at stake. Thus, the call of an intervention on the decline of this type of spa resulted in the developmental framework of a healing village concept. This paper reports on the development of a healing village concept which integrates the uniqueness of the Malays local knowledge and culture in revitalizing a holistic wellness. Kampung Batu Hampar, located in Beseri, Malaysia, has been selected as the site for the Healing Village Project. This Project develops four subprograms, namely Cultural Troupe, Herbs Garden, Kampung (village) Stay and Malay Traditional Therapy---as the agent of recuperative for the Malaysians. In particular, these subprograms involve the following healing dimensions: socio-economic, culture, people and environment. The development of these four subprograms is based on the natural resources observed in Kampung Batu Hampar as well as findings revealed by informal interviews with the villagers.

Tourism development progress of two islands of Malaysia: The locals’ perspective towards climate change

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to look at the physical tourism impacts experienced by the communities of Redang Island and Perhentian Island – two tourist islands located close to the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The physical tourism impacts are examined via environmental and infrastructure related attributes (19 attributes), which are further categorized into sustainability, environment, greenhouse effects, public and tourist facilities maintenance, sewage system management, rural areas and deforestation. All of these indicators indirectly measure the impact of climate change in these island destinations. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a questionnaire survey with an instrument based on prior work by Ap and Cromptom (1998) with regard to air pollution, deforestation and land fertility; Tetlow and Hanusch (2012) in relation to biodiversity; Sunlu (2003) in line with greenhouse effects, water quality, natural landscape and solid waste; and Cessford and Dingwall (1999), corresponding to physical impacts. Findings Results for Perhentian Island indicate serious physical impacts resulting from tourism development, compared with less serious impacts on Redang Island. Both islands were observed to experience tourism development progress that is well-blended with their natural environment, and the level of physical impact dependency on tourism development can be assessed using the environmental and infrastructure variables. Research limitations/implications While the paper reports on findings from both Perhentian and Redang Islands, results from this paper could well represent other communities in many other Malaysian island locations (or perhaps the wider region), facing a similar phenomenon. Originality/value The paper contributes to an understanding of how to investigate each variable independently, as each island is undergoing a different lifecycle phase, regardless of the fact that some islands may be mirroring each other. In addition, the paper envisages the importance of integrating social exchange theory and integrated threat theory, when it comes to evaluating how people judge the consequences of their actions.

How can the tourism industry respond to the global challenges arising from climate change and environmental degradation

Purpose The aim of this paper is to critically review the contribution made by this theme issue in responding to the strategic question: “How can the tourism industry respond to the global challenges arising from climate change and environmental degradation?” Design/methodology/approach A critical content analysis of the papers selected for the theme issue was undertaken to learn from the best practices globally. This enabled the theme editors to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting-point and the editorial process. Findings This summary paper highlights the most significant outcomes from the theme issue in terms of the contributions to knowledge and/or professional practice. It also summarizes the implications for management action and applied research arising from the outcomes and best practices based on case studies in Malaysia, Canada and New Zealand. As the main objective of the theme issue was to obtain a general overview of the relationship between tourism and climate change, five general review papers were included to strengthen the research framework. Research limitations/implications This paper outlines the challenges and new approaches in dealing with the issue of climate change. Given the economic, social and environmental significance of tourism, coverage of the climate change issue as it relates to tourism is, yet, limited. Given this scenario, the theme issue has contributed to the body of knowledge in this important field. Originality/value This paper explores the extent to which the cases presented and the review of various climate change concepts can provide guidance. The approaches and issues discussed in this theme issue could be replicated and applied in countries that are beginning to focus on climate change issues.

Coastal Resort Life Cycle: An Overview of Tioman Island, Malaysia

Abstract The increasing demand of holidaymakers for vacations in Malaysian Island destinations has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of coastal resorts. To explain the growth of coastal resorts, the approach of the life cycle model by Butler [(1980). The concept of a tourist area life cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources. The Canadian Geographer, 24(1), 5–12] is adopted. This paper describes the life cycle of coastal resorts in Tioman Island by providing the evidences of historical and fieldwork data from the start of the 1890s up to the present. The findings demonstrate that tourism has resulted in substantial changes in the islands coastal resorts. The resorts in the island have passed through subsequently four stages of development as suggested in Butlers model and are currently in the consolidation stage. In each of the stage, the changes in resort morphology and types of tourist visitation are evident. Government and private incentives are the two main factors that stimulate the transformation of the resorts from one stage to the next.

Conceptualizing and validating the psychic distance construct in the context of tourism.

This paper examines the validation of the psychic distance measure in tourism context. Two different groups of tourists with different cultural backgrounds of individualist (Australian) and collectivist (South Korean) are studied for the purpose of this research. Sequential steps are undertaken to test the scale validity by selecting items from both marketing and tourism literature. The exploratory factor analysis resulted in measurement constructs with two dimensions and confirmatory factor analysis confirm the validity of the construct in both groups. In addition, independent sample t-test confirms the difference between individualist and collectivist groups related to perceived psychic distance.