Role of creativity in enhancing visitors' experience in outdoor recreation activities: a preliminary study

Creativity and innovation are becoming key elements to attract visitors to a destination in this era. These elements will provide a better understanding of the activities that the market player and stakeholders' have to offer that can satisfy the needs and wants from the market. Based on that notion this study was undertaken to examine creativity and innovation elements used by Malaysian outdoor recreation stakeholders and market players for their activities at selected popular tourism destinations. Mixed methods were applied to get an in depth understanding about this topic. Personal interviews with the stakeholders, market players and outdoor recreation users were conducted in the first stage. The results of the initial phase of the study indicate that the outdoor recreation development in Kedah is limited, in Pahang there are areas for improvement while in Selangor, development needs more creative approaches. This study found that outdoor recreation has substantial potential in Kedah, Pahang and Selangor due to their rich natural resources suitable for outdoor recreation activities. However, creativity is still lacking relating to the activities and marketing aspects in outdoor recreation

Tourism images for three Highland destinations in Malaysia as perceived by tourists.

This paper focuses on comparing the destination image among the three highlands in Malaysia (Cameron Highlands, Fraser's Hill and Genting Highlands) as perceived by the tourists. A self-administered survey was used to collect data from 1200 respondents intercepted by using stratified sampling technique. Forty-one image attributes were factor analysed and compared among the three highlands using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). This study managed to identify 6 images for the three destinations and subsequently labelled as "accessibility and services", "local attractions and facilities", "general mood and vacation atmosphere", "leisure and recreational activities", "natural surroundings", and "nature heritage and ambience". Results also indicated several images which are unique to each individual destination. Genting Highlands was perceived to be synonymous with "leisure and recreational activities", Fraser's Hill with "general mood and vacation atmosphere" and Cameron Highlands with "local attractions and facilities". The findings of the study provided theoretical and practical implications for the tourism, authorities of Malaysia in order to manage and promote their destinations in a meaningful way

Local and foreign tourists' image of highland tourism destinations in Peninsular Malaysia

This study was conducted with the purpose of identifying and comparing the images of highland destinations in Malaysia, held by both local and foreign tourists. Data from 897 respondents, comprising of both local and foreign tourists who had visited the three highlands (Cameron Highlands, Fraser’s Hill and Genting Highlands), were collected using a stratified random sampling technique through a questionnaire survey. Forty-one destination attributes were included in the factors, which were analysed and compared between the local and foreign tourists, using the Independent-sample T-test. Based on the results, six image factors were identified for the highland destinations, and these were labelled as “accessibility and services”, “local attractions and facilities”, “general mood and vacation atmosphere”, “leisure and recreational activities”, “natural surroundings”, as well as “nature and family-oriented.” The present study also found significant difference in the images held by the local and foreign tourists for the factors on “accessibility and services”, “local attractions and facilities”, “leisure and recreational activities”, as well as “natural surroundings.” The findings suggested that the local tourists had a higher perceived image than the foreigners towards the highland destinations in Peninsular Malaysia. The findings of the study also provided theoretical and practical implications for the tourism authorities of Malaysia, particularly in enhancing the development of the tourism industry for the highland destinations

Domestic tourist destination satisfaction: a case of Kuala Selangor

This present study attempts to determine the satisfaction of visitors from the importance and ability of attractiveness attribute. From the importance and ability assigned by the visitor, an IPA analysis was conducted. A survey has been conducted between May to June 2017 in multiple attraction sites in Kuala Selangor. A total of 390 responses were analysed using SPSS software programme. The result finds that heritage, history and cultural attraction is the only attractiveness attribute that satisfied visitor. In conclusion, these findings will provide additional knowledge on how domestic visitor perceived the attraction in Kuala Selangor in term of satisfaction and which attribute need to be focused by destination marketers for future marketing strategy

Recreation attachment toward Tehran botanical garden: a Q-method inquiry

The Tehran National Botanical Garden has provided a considerable range of recreation benefits for urban communities over the past 100 years. Local communities are attached to the garden as a recreation place mainly due to environmental benefits and psychological attachment. The theory of place attachment and Q-method have been used to investigate visitors' perception, feeling, and attachment to this place. The three factors emerging from the Q-sort data were identified as educational factor, emotional factor, and functional factor. These factors represented visitors' point of view about the "place meaning" of the Tehran National Botanical Garden. The results can aid decision makers in reformulating the planning and management process to improve the recreation place role of the botanical gardens in the city for the benefit of the communities

Development of the criteria and indicators of Malaysian garden city: a Delphi consensus

It is the aspiration of the Malaysian Government to transform the country into a garden nation by 2020. It is envisaged that in the near future the image of garden nation will be materialized when all cities in the country also portray the garden image in their design and visual. There are no criteria and indicators previously used in developing these garden cities. A study was conducted to develop a reliable set of criteria and indicators for an ideal, garden city for Malaysia. Delphi method was used in this study to solicit the opinion from 30 experts through a series of questionnaire. As a result, this study was able to generate and identifying 8 criteria and 42 indicators for an ideal Malaysian’ garden city. The criteria and indicators identified could be used by the Malaysian agencies and local authorities in assessing and monitoring the development of garden cities in the countr

Attractiveness of recreational forests: an overview on selected research

The purpose of this study is to discuss the challenges and potentials for transforming recreational forests in Peninsular Malaysia as viable ecotourism destination. The selected research and articles of recreational forest were accumulated in determining the lack and weakness of the forest. In fact, recreational forests have the potential to be developed and marketed as ecotourism destinations since our forests are endowed with diverse flora and fauna, as well as other natural destinations. Some of the recreational forests really famous but some are seems to have no visitors. Several challenges are also noted in this paper which needs to be addressed before the potential can be translated into a real tourism product. This include the lack of competence pool of personnel to carryout tasks necessary to receive visitors, lack of maintenance of current facilities, lack of structured programming of ecotourism activities and the non-existence of a concerted efforts in properly developed the recreational forests as a ecotourism destinations. Once such issues are addressed, recreational forests can help to diversify and adding a unique dimension into our ecotourism and outdoor recreation sector

Destination image: an overview and summary of selected research (1974–2008)

Destination image area have been studied in over than three decades and have contributed to the management and marketing purposes in many tourism field. Sixty destination image journals beginning from 1974 to 2008 were collected in order to summarise and provide a useful overview to destination image researchers specifically and tourism researchers generally

Exploring hard and soft domestic ecotourists preferences towards selected eco-friendly attributes of ecolodges in Kinabalu Park, Sabah

The emergence of the term ecotourism in the 1980`s has brought forward numerous developments in ecotourism industry including the discovery of special niche segments, specifically the `ecotourists`, as well as specialist accommodation type, specifically the `ecolodges`. Although a number of studies have been published with regards to ecotourists` traits and ecolodges guideline, limited information is available on the domestic ecotourists` preferences towards the characteristics that ecolodges embody. Hence, this study is an attempt to address this deficiency by looking at the preferences of two contrasting ecotourist segments, namely, hard and soft domestic ecotourists in Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Area in Sabah, Malaysia. A discriminant analysis was performed using 403 samples in Kinabalu Park, and it revealed two ecotourist segments with significant differences of preferences towards six constructs of ecolodges. It was also found that hard domestic ecotourists displayed significant differences in preferring eco-friendly attributes as compared to the soft domestic ecotourists on the variables measuring nature based attractions, services and comfort, location and type of accommodation. Soft domestic ecotourists tend to resemble the mass tourists as they placed importance towards services and comfort but disliked being in remote locations. The results of this study demonstrate that ecotourist segments deserve specific considerations by ecotourism managers to cater accommodation packages based on their specific preferences in order to ensure a quality ecotourism experience

Outdoor education: its relationships to outdoor recreation

There can often be confusion among practitioners about the relationship between outdoor education and outdoor recreation and how they relate to personal and social development. This article provides an overview of the relationship of both fields. Consequently, it is important for practitioners to understand and as an eye opener about the roots and its notions. The discussion hopefully will enlighten the issues of sceptical perception for both groups of practitioners' due to lack of understanding the notion, method, fundamental theoretical and objectives of each field