National Representation of Malaysian Myths in Tourism Promotional Brochures a Longitudinal Perspective

It is claimed that myths and legends have been incorporated in tourism promotions as they have the power to enhance the appeal of tourist destinations. The inclusion of mythological aspects can contribute to the imagination of places as Oriental or Otherness destinations, a reputable approach to attracting tourists. Despite the importance of the role played by myths and legends in destination marketing, thus far there have been very few studies which have delved into this area, especially from longitudinal and self-representation perspectives. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to explore the national representation of manifest myths in tourism marketing, focusing on a longitudinal lens. In the analysis of this representation, myths included in tourism brochures published by the Malaysian national promotional bodies from 1962 to 2007 were assessed. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyse the brochures in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the representation of myths. Past brochures from the Tourism Malaysia Resource Centre in Kuala Lumpur were examined. Contemporary brochures were collected from three locations and two international airports in Malaysia: the Tourism Malaysia offices in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi Island, and Kuala Lumpur and Penang International Airports. The quantitative analysis shows that myths have been well represented in the Malaysian tourism promotional brochures, with almost one third including myths. However, the extent of the representation of the majority of myths is quite brief, most brochures allocating only a small number and percentage of words to the myths and their description. The assessment of the trend of the portrayal of myths reveals that the incorporation of myths declined steadily over the period of five decades. Qualitative analysis identified that stories depicting religious and spiritual beliefs are fundamental in Malaysian myths. The myths include a variety of themes projecting Orientalism, Otherness, modernisation, Westernisation and globalisation. Over time, changes in portraying modernisation and Westernisation have been identifiable in selected myths. The longitudinal assessment revealed that nine myths exhibit some alteration in their components. Among traditional core values ingrained in Malay myths are the significance of conveying crucial messages in a delicate way, indirect communication is a symbol of politeness; and, along with human relationships, maintaining harmony with the natural environment and supernatural worlds and beings. In the context of tourism, this research demonstrates that a significant number of myths have been utilised in the promotion of natural resources and to complement the descriptions of tangible attractions, particularly places of worship and cultural heritage sites. It is also shown that some unusual and peculiar myths have been exploited to lure tourists and used in destination marketing to highlight the uniqueness of a particular ethnicity and a place’s identity. The findings of this research shed light on the knowledge of tourism representation from longitudinal and national perspectives, by revealing over a period of five decades the trends and alterations in the projection of mythological stories and how they have been employed in the promotional brochures published by an Oriental country. They also contribute to the understanding on how myths have been utilised in promotional material and exploited to attract tourists

National Representation of Malaysian Myths in Tourism Promotional Brochures a Longitudinal Perspective

It is claimed that myths and legends have been incorporated in tourism promotions as they have the power to enhance the appeal of tourist destinations. The inclusion of mythological aspects can contribute to the imagination of places as Oriental or Otherness destinations, a reputable approach to attracting tourists. Despite the importance of the role played by myths and legends in destination marketing, thus far there have been very few studies which have delved into this area, especially from longitudinal and self-representation perspectives. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to explore the national representation of manifest myths in tourism marketing, focusing on a longitudinal lens. In the analysis of this representation, myths included in tourism brochures published by the Malaysian national promotional bodies from 1962 to 2007 were assessed. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to analyse the brochures in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the representation of myths. Past brochures from the Tourism Malaysia Resource Centre in Kuala Lumpur were examined. Contemporary brochures were collected from three locations and two international airports in Malaysia: the Tourism Malaysia offices in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi Island, and Kuala Lumpur and Penang International Airports. The quantitative analysis shows that myths have been well represented in the Malaysian tourism promotional brochures, with almost one third including myths. However, the extent of the representation of the majority of myths is quite brief, most brochures allocating only a small number and percentage of words to the myths and their description. The assessment of the trend of the portrayal of myths reveals that the incorporation of myths declined steadily over the period of five decades. Qualitative analysis identified that stories depicting religious and spiritual beliefs are fundamental in Malaysian myths. The myths include a variety of themes projecting Orientalism, Otherness, modernisation, Westernisation and globalisation. Over time, changes in portraying modernisation and Westernisation have been identifiable in selected myths. The longitudinal assessment revealed that nine myths exhibit some alteration in their components. Among traditional core values ingrained in Malay myths are the significance of conveying crucial messages in a delicate way, indirect communication is a symbol of politeness; and, along with human relationships, maintaining harmony with the natural environment and supernatural worlds and beings. In the context of tourism, this research demonstrates that a significant number of myths have been utilised in the promotion of natural resources and to complement the descriptions of tangible attractions, particularly places of worship and cultural heritage sites. It is also shown that some unusual and peculiar myths have been exploited to lure tourists and used in destination marketing to highlight the uniqueness of a particular ethnicity and a place’s identity. The findings of this research shed light on the knowledge of tourism representation from longitudinal and national perspectives, by revealing over a period of five decades the trends and alterations in the projection of mythological stories and how they have been employed in the promotional brochures published by an Oriental country. They also contribute to the understanding on how myths have been utilised in promotional material and exploited to attract tourists

Health tourism development: SPA, wellness and medical treatment

Health tourism is a trend in the tourism market that has received considerable attention worldwide.In line with this development, the paper will explore three main segments of the health tourism market which are the health spa, the wellness attraction and the medical care. Besides these three segments, the paper will review health tourism development in Malaysia, in particular the segment that has received special attention by the officials in the country, medical treatment. As the relationship between health and travel is not a phenomenon that has just developed recently.among the main issue that will be highlighted in the paper are factors that has contributed for health tourism to emerge as one of the leading trends in the: tourism industry nowadays. An overview of health tourism concept and its development throughout the world will also be presented.Lastly, challenges and opportunities in positioning Malaysia as one of the prime health tourism destinations will also presented

Health and tourism: Implications of COVID-19 pandemic to the Malaysian travel and hospitality industry

Outbreaks of diseases which are contagious and can pose serious health consequences have considerable impacts on the tourism and hospitality industry. This is reflected through past outbreaks such as foot and mouth disease (FMD), SARS, Ebola and Chikungunya. Due to the importance of health in the context of tourism, it is imperative to investigate the extent of the impact of COVID-19 health pandemic as it is considered one of the worst disease outbreaks globally. Thus, this paper aims to explore the implications of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Malaysian tourism and hospitality industry. After content analysing 63 newspaper articles published online from March to May 2020, it is uncovered that the Malaysian tourism and hospitality industry has been affected terribly by the enforcement of MCO in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 health pandemic. Stories associated with income and job losses, cancellation of Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign, closure of tourist attractions and closing down of countless of hotels were apparent in the reporting of online news. Yet, the analysis of this paper adds to the existing knowledge by revealing that despite encountering difficulty during this time of crisis, the Malaysian hospitality industry was able to show their appreciation towards medical frontliners who risk their lives to save COVID-19 patients. Some hotels demonstrate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) by offering free accommodation and other services to health personnel

Mosque tourism in Malaysia: A marketing perspective

Mosque tourism is one of the niche areas in the field of Islamic tourism that is expanding rapidly. The presence of mosques with outstanding historical, heritage, and aesthetic values have attracted foreign and domestic tourists to visit, appreciate, and experience these Muslim places of worship. As Islamic tourism is gaining popularity and the importance of mosques as tourist attractions is growing, it is therefore useful to explore mosque tourism in the context of Malaysia. While a number of investigations have researched mosque tourism in the contexts of motivations, residents’ attitudes, and architecture uniqueness, limited studies have examined Muslim places of worship from the perspective of marketing. Hence, this paper focuses on how Malaysian mosques have been promoted in tourism materials. Content analysis was utilised in the assessment of textual descriptions and visual images of mosques that have been featured in tourism promotions for over seven decades. Findings of this paper uncovered that mosques have been represented in tourism brochures published from 1969 to August 2019. Two of the earliest mosques that appeared in tourism brochures are Kapitan Kling Mosque and the Malay Mosque (Masjid Kampung Melayu) in the promotion of Penang as a tourist destination. Over time, Zahir Mosque and Ubudiah Mosque are two of the religious buildings that have been incorporated into tourist brochures prominently. From a holistic point of view, the representation of mosques is primarily integrated as part of the presence of various places of worship and multi-ethnic societies living in Malaysia.Indirectly, this portrays the image of harmony and peace among multi-ethnic communities, which further highlights Malaysia as a “Truly Asia” destination and contributes towards uniting plural societies via cultural and heritage resources

Pelancongan warisan: Satu tinjauan global

Dewasa ini, aktiviti perjalanan untuk mengunjungi destinasi berteraskan warisan telah berkembang dengan pesat. Warisan apabila digabungkan dengan aktiviti kesenggangan dan pelancongan boleh dikategorikan sebagai salah satu komponen yang penting dan sedang membangun dengan pesat dalam fenomena pelancongan dunia (Martin & Mason, 1992; Waters, 1994; Herbert, 1995; Alzua et al. 1998). Menurut Richards (2000), WTO telah menyatakan yang pelancongan budaya dan warisan merupakan segmen penting daripada keseluruhan permintaan pelancong dan mewakili sebanyak 37 peratus daripada pelancongan antarabangsa

"Visit truly Asia Malaysia": Analysing VMY 2020 tourism promotional video

Tourism Malaysia has adopted the tagline “Malaysia Truly Asia” in projecting this country to tourists since 1999. Branding Malaysia as an Asian destination has been a wellestablished theme in marketing Malaysian tourism. As a result of this, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has retained Asia as a unique tourism brand and identity in the launching of Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign. However, the slogan has been slightly rephrased to “Visit Truly Asia Malaysia”. Because of the importance of Asia as a Malaysian tourism brand for two decades, this paper aims to explore how the national tourism authority of Malaysia portrayed the recent tourism campaign “Visit Truly Asia Malaysia” in the official promotional video. Utilising a discourse analysis method, visuals and the textual content through lyrics of the song were assessed to uncover how this country has been framed as part of the theme “Visit Truly Asia Malaysia”. The assessment of the promotional video uncovered that the projection of “Truly Asia” primarily reflects multi-ethnicity of Malaysian societies and unity in diversity as core attractions in the official video. This is manifested through the portrayal of their colourful cultural heritage attributes, particularly traditional costumes, traditional music and performing arts, musical instruments, and gastronomy. Diverse spectacular natural resources, such as tropical rainforests, wildlife, beaches and highlands, are also parts of “Truly Asia” projection. The overall assessment of the promotional video identified that the portrayal of Malaysia as a tourist destination adopted some attributes of Orientalism, particularly fascinating traditional cultural heritage attributes and natural resources in order to highlight Otherness uniqueness and exoticness. Aspects of modernity and familiarity are depicted through cosmopolitan cities and Western lifestyles

From hunting to adventure with nature: Analysing the representation of natural tourism attractions in Malaysia (Dari memburu ke kembara alam: Analisis representasi tarikan pelancongan berasaskan alam semula jadi di Malaysia)

Although nature-based tourism is frequently presented as a sustainable form of tourism, there are claims that many destination marketers have often exploited this type of tourism in order to attract tourists and make profits. Despite the fact that many past works have investigated aspects related to nature especially ecotourism, very few studies explored on how natural resources have been marketed by the tourism promotional organisations. Owing to this reason, this paper analyses how nature-based attractions have been incorporated and presented to visitors in the promotional brochures using content analysis method. The content analysis of the brochures published from 1962 to 2016 found that natural resources have been incorporated extensively. Three categories of nature-based attractions represented widely in tourism brochures are national parks, islands and beaches, and mountains and hills. On the other hand, big game hunting was only marketed to tourists in the brochures published in the 1960s and 1970s, while types of natural resources promoted to tourists have expanded considerably from 1990s to 2016. Overall, findings of this paper shed light into the understanding on how natural attractions have been represented to tourists for 54 years. It is revealed that with the rising environmental awareness, the Malaysian tourism authorities have modified the way they presented nature-based attractions to some extent, from the image of exploiting natural resources for tourism purposes to environmental care and ethical travel in relatively recent promotional brochures. Yet, a few aspects and activities which contradict to the tourism sustainable practices are still traceable. This paper concludes that natural resources are among the primary attractions for the country’s tourism until today and these attributes have been utilised significantly in tourism promotional materials to attract tourists

Image of Dunedin as a tourist destination: content analysis of tourism promotional websites

Image plays a meaningful role in boosting the competitive edge of a particular tourist destination. As digital media have been receiving considerable importance in supplying information and act as marketing means in tourism, this study aims to explore the image of a tourist destination depicted in the websites by national and local promotional organisations. In investigating the destination image topic, this research explores the image of Dunedin as projected by tourism websites of the official bodies in the promotion of this city. A content analysis technique has been adopted in the assessment of these travel promotional websites. Overall, a very positive image of the city has been projected by both national and local organisations. Findings of this paper revealed that the national tourism organisation highlighted the Scottish origin of Dunedin and labelled the city as the Edinburgh of New Zealand. The primary asset or the unique selling proposition of the city as projected by both organisations is its rare wildlife particularly the penguins. Natural resources such as beaches and other wildlife especially the royal albatross, seals and sea lions and cultural heritage attributes like Larnach Castle, Dunedin Railway Station and Toitu Otago Settlers Museum formed the image of Dunedin as a tourist destination and this observation is reflected in both websites. Compared to the national tourism organisation, the local tourism authority presented more diverse attractions and sites including remote areas and hidden parts of the city. Its local knowledge of the city is further accentuated through the words such as hidden and insiders. In short, both unique features and familiar attributes are presented on the websites in portraying Dunedin as a fascinating and friendly tourist destination

Promotion of cultural heritage attractions in Malaysia: e-Brochure perspectives

Cultural heritage resources are among the primary tourist attractions commonly included in promotional materials.Various categories of heritage attraction, such as nature, culture and built environment, play an important role in attracting international as well as domestic tourists and are a major source of foreign exchange for many countries, including Malaysia. Cultural heritage resources are especially important to Malaysia in the development of tourism, as an agent of national integration and representing a key theme in the country‘s promotional campaign. Although several works have examined various aspects of Malaysian cultural heritage, few studies have explored this topic from the perspective of tourism promotion.Thus, this paper analyses how cultural heritage attractions are projected in current Malaysian tourism promotion.Content analysis was adopted in the assessment of cultural heritage attractions represented in the e-brochures published by Tourism Malaysia.The findings reveal that cultural traditions, buildings and natural heritage are all promoted.The key theme reflected through the descriptions and images of intangible and built heritage is the portrayal of Malaysia as a multi-ethnic destination, which is consistent with the current promotional tagline, ‗Malaysia Truly Asia‘.Attributes including traditional costume, rural lifestyles, music and dance, cuisine, games and pastimes, buildings, architecture, places of worship and handicrafts have been employed extensively in the e-brochures.Natural heritage resources and activities are also widely represented in various brochures either as specialised attractions, background or integrated with other types of attraction. Finally, the findings of this study add to the understanding of destination marketing by showing which aspects of cultural heritage have been selected and commoditised in tourism promotion