Analysing visual and textual content of tourism brochures: a case of Malaysian destination image

The purpose of the study is to reveal the meaning of destination images that is projected in tourism brochures. Semiotic analysis approach is used to achieve this objective. This paper adapts the 4-phase research process of design principle, data elicitation, data analysis and knowledge interest. The work of Saussurre, Peirce and Barthes is reviewed in understanding the structure of meaning from both visual and textual angles prior to applying the semiotic analysis approach within the destination image context. The findings of this paper discuss the underlying structure of meaning of Malaysian destination images from a British perspective

Community participation in mitigating marine waste to reduce climatic change in tourism destinations

Purpose: Waste in the marine environment has become a serious task to be managed. Uncontrolled dumping creates large amounts of methane gas contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This conceptual paper focuses on the role of community in waste management activities to reduce carbon emissions in the marine environment. Hence, this paper aims to examine using literature, the various roles of community, types of marine waste and its impact on carbon emissions and climate change. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on evaluation and criticism from previous studies and provides a hypothetical understanding of the human contribution to climate change, and its impacts which will increasingly affect climate change and sustainable tourism. Findings: The results from this study can be used as a guide for policy makers to help improve community participation and public engagement in efforts to reduce the levels of waste in the marine environment. This is especially critical in rural tourism destinations where the impact of uncontrolled marine waste has serious consequences for the tourism industry. Originality/value: The paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of community in mitigating waste to attain a higher quality of tourism experience and environmental benefits from emission level reductions

Responsible tourism: an inductive approach

The purpose of this study is to determine responsible tourism indicators. An inductive approach is used to achieve this objective. This paper adapts the 4-phase research process of design principle, data elicitation, data analysis and knowledge interest. The empirical assessment is undertaken at Taman Negara (National Park), Malaysia. In-depth interviews were carried out to capture the indicators for responsible tourism from a stakeholder’s perspective. Four broad categories out of the 68 stakeholders who participated in this survey include local community, domestic tourists, international tourists and policy makers. Political, ecological, social, economic, technological and cultural are the six dimensions used as a topic guide during the in-depth interviews. The findings of this paper discuss the underlying meaning of responsible tourism indicators from various stakeholders’ perspective

Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market: a conceptual framework

This paper examines a specific market segment – the visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market – within a broader context of the tourism market. Misconception of VFR as a non-lucrative market segment and the fact that VFR appeared as one of the least researched areas has been the underpinning reasons to embark on this study. This paper is dedicated to understand the meaning of visiting friends and relatives. An extensive literature review revealed five emergent themes within the context of the VFR research, which includes: motivation, conceptualisation, distance, sector, and measurement. Realising VFR’s contribution to the broader tourism market, this paper reveal the significance of the VFR market within the broader tourism market segments in order for both academics and practitioners to have renewed appreciation toward this subject matter

Community participation in mitigating marine waste to reduce climatic change in tourism destinations

Purpose: Waste in the marine environment has become a serious task to be managed. Uncontrolled dumping creates large amounts of methane gas contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This conceptual paper focuses on the role of community in waste management activities to reduce carbon emissions in the marine environment. Hence, this paper aims to examine using literature, the various roles of community, types of marine waste and its impact on carbon emissions and climate change. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on evaluation and criticism from previous studies and provides a hypothetical understanding of the human contribution to climate change, and its impacts which will increasingly affect climate change and sustainable tourism. Findings: The results from this study can be used as a guide for policy makers to help improve community participation and public engagement in efforts to reduce the levels of waste in the marine environment. This is especially critical in rural tourism destinations where the impact of uncontrolled marine waste has serious consequences for the tourism industry. Originality/value: The paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of community in mitigating waste to attain a higher quality of tourism experience and environmental benefits from emission level reductions

Conceptualizing a Corporate Social Performance (CSP) framework for rural tourism destinations: measuring tourist satisfaction to increase revisitation

Industries today face challenging task to satisfy socially conscious travellers who are concerned with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues. In order to measure CSR performance of organisations, the concept of Corporate Social Performance (CSP) is developed. Existing literature shows that repeat visitation on tourist destinations is a result of high level of tourist satisfaction and thus, creating customer loyalty. To consider what it means for a company to be socially responsible, this study attempts to develop a framework to measure how selected Corporate Social Performance (CSP) dimensions influences the satisfaction of tourist thus creating tourist revisitation to the rural tourism destination. The overall importance of measuring CSP for consumer satisfaction in the tourism context is so that companies can create ways to improve delivery of their service to customers and design customer retention programmes

Marine waste management indicators in a tourism environment: exploring possibilities for Semporna District, Sabah

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the various indicators of marine waste management and its adaptability to the tourism industry in Semporna District, Sabah. Marine waste management was identified as a serious concern in Semporna, specifically the increase in general and hazardous waste and the lack of waste reduction activities. Selected waste management indicators can help to support information-based decision making in many levels of tourism planning and management. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a critical review of previous studies. It provides a theoretical understanding for readers to recognize the indicators used in marine waste management in the context of managing the environment in tourism destinations. Findings: This paper provides an overview of the environmental indicators widely used in waste management of marine and island destinations and identifies indicators with potential for application in Semporna and islands off the coast of Semporna. Practical implications: The paper provides vital information to assist the local government select suitable indicators to alleviate marine waste management in Semporna, Sabah. Originality/value: The paper contributes to a better understanding of marine waste available management indicators in the tourism environment. The use of these dependable measurements should serve as a "report card" for each marine tourism site in the country

Motivation to visit the Giant Panda Conservation Centre in Zoo Negara, Malaysia

This paper aims to identify factors that affect motivations to visit the Giant Panda Conservation Centre (GPCC). The significant motivational dimension among visitors and how these motivational factors and socio-demographic factors influence the time spent at the GPCC in Zoo Negara, Malaysia are explored. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among visitors to the GPCC. A factor structure which consisted of 15 factors within several motivational dimensions was derived. Results demonstrated that all the factors present high loading values to explain overall motivation. Findings showed that among the motivational dimensions, altruism appeared as the strongest motive followed by intrinsic social motive while self-interest scored the lowest. Findings from multivariate analysis showed that intrinsic social motive and edu-tourism, as well as the socio-demographic variables of age, travel companion and ethnicity, were significantly related to time spent. Age emerged as the most significant independent variable influencing the time spent by visitors. This explorative study of visitors to the GPCC contributes insight into the motives of people visiting the GPCC, how motives are related to the time spent at the GPCC, and how sociodemographic factors are related to time spent. Zoo Negara's management can utilise these findings to prepare future marketing, product development and extension strategies for the GPCC as an attractive destination. o

Malaysia’s tourism demand from selected countries: the ARDL approach to cointegration

This paper investigates the long-run and short-run relationships between tourist arrivals to Malaysia and tourism price in Malaysia, tourism prices at alternative destinations, traveling costs, incomes and exchange rates, using the bounds testing approach developed within the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework. The empirical results show that in the long run, tourism price in Malaysia, traveling costs, tourism prices at alternative destinations and incomes are the important determinants of Malaysia’s tourism demand from the selected countries namely Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. The results also indicate that the 1997-98 East Asian economic crisis and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – SARS significantly affected Malaysia’s tourism demand