Understanding the role of memorable tourism experiences in loyalty at Giant Panda Conservation Centre, Zoo Negara Malaysia

Memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) have recently emerged to become an important study for tourism destinations to compete in this rapid growing marketplace. Unlike visitors’ loyalty, it has always been a vital objective of service providers. Positive MTEs have been hypothesized for being able to develop future behavioral intentions in the visitors such as revisiting a destination. There is currently still lack of studies regarding the relationship between these two dimensions especially at Giant Panda Conservation Centre (GPCC) in Zoo Negara Malaysia which was established in year 2014. GPCC is the enclosure of the two giant pandas loaned to Malaysia by China to mark the 40thAnniversary Diplomatic Relationship between the two countries. For GPCC, loyal visitors and also new visitors are crucial as the giant pandas will be here for 10 years. Therefore, this research examines whether MTEs can affect a visitor’s loyalty at GPCC in Zoo Negara. A quantitative method was used with a sample of 217visitors and multiple regression analysis was carried out. The results showed that MTEs have a significant relationship with visitors loyalty. In a nutshell, it is essential for GPCC’s management to increase positive visitors’ MTEs in order to increase the number of loyal visitors who will revisit GPCC and provide positive Word of Mouth to their family and friends so that they will help to attract more new visitors

The strength of social capital of three local communities at Gunung Pueh National Park, Lundu, Sarawak

Social capital is an important concept in identifying the connection and relationship of the community, which has three dimensions: bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Since nowadays the issues related to trust, criminal and relationship has been a serious problem in our community, hence the measurement to determine the strength of social capital dimension has been conducted. The initial process has been explored to identify the suitable social capital indicators. The result is then used to construct into an instrument comprising six indicators based on survey items and past studies namely participation in local community, proactive in social context, neighborhood connection, diversity and tolerance, feeling trust and safety and family and friends connection. This is a quantitative study involving 390 respondents with the self-administered questionnaire distributed in three communities at Gunung Pueh National Park which are Kampung Biawak, Kampung Sebako and Kampung Pueh. The result revealed that bonding social capital is strongly hold the communities followed by linking and bridging social capital. At the other hand, the result showed Kampung Pueh has the strongest overall social capital followed by Kampung Sebako and Kampung Biawak

Motivational factors of women to become social entrepreneurs in Lundu district, Sarawak

Social entrepreneurship has become the attention of the scholars and practitioners for years in various countries as it is a tool which plays important roles in developing individuals, societies, and communities socially and economically. However, it is essential to study the motivations of the social entrepreneurs as it is yet to be theorised. Therefore, this study is to determine what motivates the women to become social entrepreneurs. A set of designed questionnaires with dual languages was used for the data collection. Motivational factors were measured on respondents’ agreement by using five-point Likert Scale. This study was targeted at women social entrepreneurs in Lundu District, Sarawak. The data collected was analysed by using the IBM SPSS. Through the samples of 150 women social entrepreneurs, the findings show that “Financial Independence” is the motivational factor that motivates women the most, which followed by “Contribution to Society” and “Need for Affiliation”. On the other hand, “Role Models Influence” is the least motivational factor for the women to join the ventures in social entrepreneurship. In a nutshell, this study provides the picture on what motivates the social entrepreneurs which can then be the reference for management to design strategies to attract more people to join social entrepreneurship as well as the reference for future related studies

The relationship between service quality and memorable tourism experience at Giant Panda Conservation Centre in Zoo Negara Malaysia

Service quality has always been the highlight in service-based sectors especially in the tourism sector where experience is their primary product. However, to be successful in this highly competitive tourism industry, bestowing visitors with great service quality and increase their positive memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) are essential as satisfaction alone is proven to be insufficient. Zoo Negara is the oldest zoo in Malaysia, but it is one of the latest additions to the panda zoo around the world as it has been chosen to house a pair of giant pandas named Fu Wa (Xing Xing) and Feng Yi (Liang Liang) for 10 years. Therefore, this exploratory research examines whether service quality is an antecedent of MTEs for GPCC in Zoo Negara Malaysia. Many studies have been done at GPCC but none have linked service quality with the MTEs in their studies. This study seeks to increase their understanding of their service quality and MTEs, and nevertheless covers the gap between the two dimensions for zoo setting. Quantitative method has been used, and a purposive sampling approach has been employed. The data gathered were analysed using multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that service quality is an antecedent of MTEs where both technical quality and functional quality have positive relationship with MTEs. This has bridged the gap for current literature. Hence, it is necessary for the management of Zoo Negara to enhance their service quality of GPCC so that more people will have positive MTEs that will eventually increase the possibility of a person to revisit it

WeeliciousCuisine quick response (QR)

This paper attempts to create a WeeliciousCuisine quick respond (QR) code content which including some guideline video to guide the users on how to use this product and also providing some recipe to teach them how to used and how to made a complete dishes.The target of audience ages are in seventeen to twenty five years old.Besides that, it also aim for the restaurants, shops and bars to provide them a better understanding of how the products have been use as to improve the services of the tourism industry as this application provides the useful information related to the products or ingredients that required by the foreigners, so the users can get the right ingredients in overseas for example, Malaysia.Research conducted by using the descriptive statistics and result shown more than 58% respondents are still not familiar with Quick respond code but more than a half respondents are interested to know more about Quick respond code and requested to improve their content on food and beverage.In conclusion, WeeliciousCuisine Quick Response (QR) is a system that helps user to have a quick look and learn how to cook in short time.The function of this system is to prevent users for choosing the wrong ingredients and also help them to save time and cost in the supermarket

Board Capital and Firm Performance

This study examines the influence of board capital on firm performance. Annual reports are used as the main sources for data collection. This study finds that firm performance decreases with gender diversity. Next, the interlocking directorate is not associated with firm performance. The findings would be useful to Malaysian policy-makers in deliberating the board’s role as a governance mechanism in strengthening the board structure. The results suggest selecting a director with relevant knowledge and perspective rather than simply meeting the number of board seats

Responses to Stress among East Malaysian Students : Psychometric Properties of the Responses to Stress Questionnaire

Background: Academic stress is part of a student’s life. Chronic stress may result in mental health problems, affecting the adolescent’s well-being in adulthood. However, not all types of stress result in a negative effect. Therefore, understanding how adolescents adapt to academic stress can lay the groundwork for preventive interventions. The Response to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ) for academic problems centred on a multidimensional model of responses to stress. However, it has not been tested among Malaysians. Thus, this study aimed to validate the questionnaire among Malaysians. Methods: The questionnaire was translated into the Malay language using forward and backward translation. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires at a secondary school in Kuching. A validity test was conducted using face and content validation by subject matter experts, and construct validation was performed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). A reliability test was conducted by checking Cronbach’s alpha. Results: Results showed that the questionnaire has good validity and reliability. The EFA resulted in only three dimensions of responses to stress among Malaysian adolescents in contrast to the five dimensions in the original RSQ for academic problems. The Cronbach’s alpha showed good reliability of the questionnaire. Conclusion: The questionnaire measuring responses to stress was valid and reliable in assessing the responses of adolescents to academic stress

The protection of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong : an analysis of civic engagement strategies

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Effects of pH, glucose and iron sulfate concentration on the yield of biohydrogen by Clostridium butyricum EB6

A local bacterial isolate from palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge, identified as Clostridium butyricum EB6, was used for biohydrogen production. Optimization of biohydrogen production was performed via statistical analysis, namely response surface methodology(RSM), with respect to pH, glucose and iron concentration. The results show that pH, glucose concentration and iron concentration significantly influenced the biohydrogen gas production individually, interactively and quadratically (P < 0.05). The center composite design (CCD) results indicated that pH 5.6, 15.7 g/L glucose and 0.39 g/L FeSO4 were the optimal conditions for biohydrogen production, yielding 2.2 mol H2/mol glucose. In confirmation of the experimental model, t-test results showed that curve fitted to the experimental data had a high confidence level, at 95% with t ¼ 2.225. Based on the results of this study, optimization of the culture conditions for C. butyricum EB6 significantly increased the production of biohydrogen