The Implementation of Green Marketing Tools in Rural Tourism: The Readiness of Tourists?

Environmental sustainability is the key factor for the future development of the tourism industry, particularly in sensitive rural tourism destinations. Green tourism and green marketing are alternative practices that ensure the environmental sustainability of tourism destinations. However, green marketing has received little attention in the context of rural destinations. This is the first known study undertaken with the purpose of understanding the relationship between green marketing tools (eco-brand, eco-label, and environmental advertisement) and green purchasing behavior in rural tourism destinations from the perception of tourists. A sample of 252 respondents was selected to complete the questionnaires. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS (version 3.2.6) was applied based on path modeling, followed by bootstrapping. The results revealed that the three-dimensional constructs of green marketing tools were significantly and positively correlated with green purchasing behavior of rural tourism destinations from tourists’ perspectives. Several implications, limitations, and directions for future research were further discussed. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LL

The Implementation of Green Marketing Tools in Rural Tourism: The Readiness of Tourists?

Environmental sustainability is the key factor for the future development of the tourism industry, particularly in sensitive rural tourism destinations. Green tourism and green marketing are alternative practices that ensure the environmental sustainability of tourism destinations. However, green marketing has received little attention in the context of rural destinations. This is the first known study undertaken with the purpose of understanding the relationship between green marketing tools (eco-brand, eco-label, and environmental advertisement) and green purchasing behavior in rural tourism destinations from the perception of tourists. A sample of 252 respondents was selected to complete the questionnaires. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS (version 3.2.6) was applied based on path modeling, followed by bootstrapping. The results revealed that the three-dimensional constructs of green marketing tools were significantly and positively correlated with green purchasing behavior of rural tourism destinations from tourists’ perspectives. Several implications, limitations, and directions for future research were further discussed. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Rural tourism quality of services: fundamental contributive factors from tourists’ perceptions

Despite the importance of quality of services in the rural tourism sector, it is somewhat surprising that little study has been done to delve into the fundamental contributive factors that contribute to quality of services from the tourists’ perceptions. This is the first known study undertaken with a view to understand the fundamental contributive factors (i.e. climate change, carrying capacity, relaxation environment, and community support) from the environmental perspectives that link with quality of services in rural tourism destinations. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to the tourists who visited four study sites from Borneo Heights, Sarawak, and 215 were returned and used for analysis. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modelling and then bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that tourists are more concerned about the changing of climate and relaxation environment at the destination. They also agreed that community support plays a significant role in the development of quality of services in the rural tourism. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future researc

Examining the effects of environmental components on tourism destination competitiveness: The moderating impact of community support

Contemporarily, tourism sector is a highly competitive environment, which forces tourism players to provide better visitor services in order to stay competitive. In rural tourism, a growing niche in the tourism market, multiple components of environmental constructs play a crucial role in contributing to the sustainability and competitiveness of rural tourism destinations. Hence, this study examines the impact of environment components on development of rural tourism destination competitiveness from a local community perspective. In addition, community support was adopted as moderator variable to examine the relationship among the constructs. 299 respondents comprising of residents of rural tourism in Sarawak, Malaysia took part voluntarily in this study. Data analysis was performed using SPSS Version 21.0 and Smart PLS 2.0 (M3) to assess the developed model, based on path modelling and then bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that four of the environmental constructs have had a significant positive impact on destination competitiveness from local communities' perspective

Community’s experiential knowledge on the development of rural tourism competitive advantage: a study on Kampung Semadang – Borneo Heights, Sarawak

Purpose - Rural tourism has emerged as one of the potential economic contributors to the country’s economic growth. To this extent, tourism stakeholders are aware of the rural tourism destination competitiveness where the development should be aligned with the objectives in order to achieve destination competitive advantage. Given the importance of studying factors that contribute to the development of rural tourism competitive advantage, the present study proposed a research framework by identifying six predictors from the local community based on their experiential knowledge. Design/methodology/approach - Data were gathered through a structured questionnaire survey where 144 respondents comprising local communities from Kampung Semadang – Borneo Heights, Sarawak, Malaysia were involved. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied based on path modelling (measurement model assessment) followed by bootstrapping analysis (structural model assessment). Findings - Interestingly, the findings revealed that the communities believed economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts significantly contributes to the development of rural tourism competitive advantage. Additionally, communities from Kampung Semadang viewed that both community knowledge and support for tourism greatly affect the development of rural tourism destination competitive advantage. Surprisingly, there was no significant relationship between stakeholder involvement and rural tourism competitive advantage. Practical Implications - From a practical point of view, the findings of the study provide valuable information to tourism stakeholders and policy planners about the importance of tri-dimensional tourism impacts as well as community knowledge and support in the development of rural tourism destination competitive advantage. In line with policy development or planning for rural tourism development, the tourism stakeholders should pay more concern on the tri-dimensional impacts, the importance of community knowledge about tourism, and gaining the community support for tourism development in order to achieve the goal of competitiveness. Originality/value – There is lack of study in investigating the development of rural tourism competitive advantage with a holistic framework. This paper studies the intended or unintended economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts triggered by the tourism activities. This study has also investigated the local communities’ knowledge and supports towards tourism as the community efforts determine the success of a destination management, especially in the rural area. Stakeholder involvement was also examined as the collaboration among relevant parties to create competitive advantage is essential to achieve sustainable rural tourism

Rural tourism destination competitiveness: A study on Annah Rais Longhouse Homestay, Sarawak

Tourism industry is known as one of the largest economic sectors in most of the countries and highly contributes to the economic growth in Malaysia. Contemporary, the sustainability of tourism destination become crucial and highly contributes to the competitiveness of a rural tourism destination. Nonetheless, the high competitive environment in this industry forces tourism players to provide better services to their visitors in order to stay competitive. Hence, multiple components of environmental construct, namely, environmental conservation, environmental education, cultural heritage attractions, tourism infrastructure, and natural resources play crucial roles in attracting tourists to visit and gain sustainability for rural tourism destination. Local communities’ attitudes toward tourism development highly influence the success and failure of tourism development at the destinations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of multi-environmental components towards development of tourism destination competitiveness from local communities’ perspective. A total of 80 local communities from Annah Rais Longhouse Homestay, Sarawak voluntarily took part in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modeling and then bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings from this study revealed that both cultural heritage attractions and natural resources found to have positive impact towards development of destination competitiveness from local communities’ perspective. Implications of these findings are discussed further