Community engagement in an international sailing event: the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore resident perceptions of, and engagement with a staged sport event, the Monsoon Cup. The Monsoon Cup is an international yachting regatta which is held annually in Terengganu, Malaysia and is strongly supported by their Federal Government to raise the country’s international profile as a popular sport tourism destination. Previous studies have reviewed residents’ attitudes towards tourism development and the factors that influence their perceptions. However, little research has been conducted on residents’ expectations, interests and needs in terms of a specific mega sport tourism event such as the Monsoon Cup. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews was the principal means of collecting data. The sample consisted of local residents living in Pulau Duyong, five kilometers from the capital of Terengganu. Thirty-six residents were interviewed with the majority being male (N = 28), with ages ranging from 20 to 73 years. A number of questions were developed and pilot tested before being posed to the study respondents about the annual staging of the Monsoon Cup. NVIVO 9.1 computer software package was used to code, compare and classify the major themes that recurred or were common in the data set. Findings: The findings provided strong support for the critical importance of actively engaging local residents in the staging of such a large-scale event. In the first year of operation, many of the local residents of Pulau Duyong had enthusiastically participated in MC-related activities; however, the level of engagement had declined significantly in the recent years. In the future, every effort must be taken to focus on the development of better lines of communication and information dissemination with respect to the planning and actual staging of the annual event than is currently the case. Practical implications Community feedback suggested that key stakeholders involved in the staging of the Monsoon Cup have a critical role to play in the future in engaging local residents of Pulau Duyong more purposefully in the event itself. Greater effort must be made on the part of event organisers to actively recruit local residents to assist with the event planning, promotion and staging of the regatta. In addition, the distribution of brochures on a periodic basis to convey information about event-related activities and opportunities for community engagement were suggested to be a highly desirable first step. Practical implications: Community feedback suggested that the event company involved in the staging of the Monsoon Cup had a critical role to play in engaging local residents of Pulau Duyong more purposefully in the event itself. In particular, effort needed to be focussed initially on the development of better lines of communication and information dissemination with respect to the planning and actual staging of the annual event than was currently the case. Originality/value: This research will be of great benefit to the key stakeholders involved in the staging of the event, which includes local government, the event organisers, tourism professionals and community residents, by providing deeper insights into matters that residents expressed as being important. This will help to ensure that in the future, all stakeholders will be empowered contributors to the ongoing planning and annual staging of this international event

Knowledge as contributing factor affecting residents’ support towards a sailing event

The aim of this research is to determine whether knowledge in sporting event would have impact upon the residents’ views and support towards the Monsoon Cup event. This study utilized social exchange theory and data where data were collected through one to one in-depth semi-structured interview. A total of 14 individuals from the organizing team and 36 local residents were chosen. A purposive sampling and a snowball sampling method was used to gain data from among the most ingenuous respondents. Residents were selected according to their demographic background (gender, age and length of residency) and socio-economic background (type of occupation and level of education). Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the interviews. The results of this study revealed that with knowledge in sporting event such as water sport, residents would view the overall benefits and costs more positively and support the event. The results also confirmed social exchange theory principles, where knowledge is an exchange element which influences residents’ evaluations of the event as bringing greater benefits than costs. As a reward from the exchange process, residents generally supported the future holding of the Monsoon Cup event

Residents’ needs and organisers’ goals towards the organisation of Monsoon Cup Event, Malaysia

The Monsoon Cup sporting event is an international yachting regatta held annually in Pulau Duyong, Terengganu, Malaysia during monsoon season between November and January. This research is significant for stakeholders (the community and organisers) in terms of promoting a more transparent process for managing and organising of the Monsoon Cup sailing event. The aim of this research is to examine the social and economic needs of the residents and the goals of the organisers’ (government and Event Company) in organising the Monsoon Cup event. This research used qualitative technique and data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interview with 14 individuals from the organizing team and 36 local residents from Pulau Duyong. The collected data was analysed using thematic content analysis. This research used social exchange theory to develop its theoretical framework. Several important themes emerged from the interviews with the residents that the event would provide positive economic impact especially in increasing income and providing new business opportunities. The interviews with the organisers revealed some important goals which were to promote Terengganu internationally, to provide source of income, to promote traditional boat making industry and to encourage the sport of sailing. Finally, this research had exposed the similarities and differences between residents’ needs and organisers’ goals which can provide strategies to achieve mutual understanding between the key stakeholders

Does Festival-goer is a Risk-Taker?

This paper examines festivalgoers' risk-taking behaviour, focusing on a Malaysian music festival. A qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews with 15 music festival-goers. The respondents' risk-taking behaviour was examined using DOSPERT, including financial, health and safety, recreation, ethical, and social domains. The findings show that the previous music festival's risks did not affect festivalgoers' motivation to attend. A significant impact on government, organiser, and society. Respondents offered some guidelines for organising a music festival. Since very few papers examine the prospect of risk in music festivals, the adoption of DOSPERT provides much-needed rich and credible data. Keywords: Risk-taking Behavior, Risk, Music Festival, Event eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6iSI4.291

Sustainability in tourist attractions in Malaysia

Tourist attraction is a core component in tourism system and the main purpose why visitors travel to a destination. This paper discusses the roles of sustainable development practices in four tourist attractions in Melaka, Malaysia. The main purpose of the research is to examine how does the public and private owned tourist attractions survive over the years, that has led them to sustain and still offering their products to the visitors. Results revealed various strategies that were implemented and these strategies are in line with sustainable tourism concept and also focused strategies with regards to operation management of the tourism sites. The sustainable tourism concept reveals that tourism has the characteristics to improve quality of life of the host community, provide quality experience to the visitors and maintain quality environment for usage of both tourist and the host community. Therefore, a comprehensive dimension in sustainable tourism for managing tourism attractions is proposed

The relationship between tourism development and sustainable development goals in Vietnam

This study explores the relationship between tourism development and sustainable development goals in Vietnam. This study takes tourism receipt and tourism expenditures as indicators to measure the level of tourism development, while government environmental expenditures have been used to measure sustainable development. This study also uses population growth and economic growth as control variables in the study. This study has extracted the data from World Bank Indicators (WDI) from 1971 to 2019. The study employs the unit root test to examine the stationarity of the variables and also uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to investigate the relationships among the variables. This study finds a positive association between tourism development and sustainable development goals in Vietnam. In doing so, it is able to provide insightful guidance for policymakers seeking to formulate and implement policies related to tourism development and sustainable development

Developing visitors' perception indicators on natural resource conservation in Tasik Kenyir, Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to develop scale to measure the indicators of the visitors’ perception on natural resources conservation for ecotourism development in Tasik Kenyir, Malaysia. Constructed questionnaires were distributed to visitors in Tasik Kenyir who were selected using the convenience sampling method which is a non-probability sampling technique. The data collection method used in this study was the face-to-face interview. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the socio-demographic profiles of the respondents in this study, while factor analysis was used to develop the scale for the visitors’ perception on natural resource conservation. Results obtained in this study indicate that 24 variables have significant contribution in determining the perception on the indicators of natural resource conservation and are distributed into nine factors. These findings can be used undertaking the conservation of natural resource for the development of ecotourism

Stakeholder collaboration for organizing a yachting sport event

The Monsoon Cup event is an international yachting regatta held annually in Terengganu, Malaysia.Since its inception in the year 2005, many issues and critics have been reported in the local newspapers.The local residents have not been informed about the planning and infrastructure development for the purpose of organising the Monsoon Cup.The government did not ask for their opinion, views, comments and sharing of information with regards to the event.In Malaysia,input from the host community is often not seriously considered and seen to be practically irrelevant to the planning process (Din, 1997).Therefore, it is vital to investigate the views,engagement and forms of collaboration between the key stakeholders involved in the staging of a sailing event.The qualitative data collected from the stakeholders revealed that examining residents’ needs, knowledge and participation in a sporting event,and power distance issues were seen to be important factors in supporting the collaborative organisation of the Monsoon Cup event.This book provides useful information about the forms of collaborative organizing to industry players,policy makers,sport event organizer and public society