“Your Loyalty is Rewarded”: a study of Hotel Loyalty Program in Malaysia

Hotel loyalty programs had shown their importance in the global market and Malaysia is following up this trend. Yet, many of the information from the perspective of customers are still yet to be discovered by researchers. The purpose of this study is to discover the current state of satisfaction and perception of hotel loyalty program and finding out the more preferred program attributes as well as the significant factor associated with the level of satisfaction in the context of Malaysia. A total of 109 survey responses were collected. The result had shown that Malaysian consumers were overall rather satisfied with the current hotel loyalty program and their satisfaction was found highly correlated with the reward value and reward timing provided which was also ranked as most important by the respondents. This study concluded that Malaysians were mostly seeking for direct or immediate reward like monetary discount and least favoured on point collection program. Lastly, the Malaysian users were found to have a positive perception on hotel loyalty program that they found the program to be useful and able to provide benefit or advantage to them

Cruise tourism in Malaysia: A SWOT Analysis

According to Tourism Malaysia, the Asian and international cruise in growing at the average of 14% annually over the past ten years while number of cruise passengers in Malaysia also expected to exceed half a million in 2013. Despite its potential, the cruise industry in Malaysia is facing ever-growing of competitions from their neighboring countries. An SWOT Analysis was used to discuss the potential of improving strategic decision and planning for cruise tourism in Malaysia. According to findings, notable strengths include a growing market and the government’s push to upgrade ports’ infrastructure. Weaknesses include oligopolistic competition and negative perception of Malaysian cruises being overly gambling-oriented rather than holiday making. Opportunities are seen in three areas: 1) Increase of spending in travel and cruising; 2) Exemption from the Malaysia Cabotage Policy was given to all international cruises by the Malaysian government, hence, attracting more international cruises to stopover to more destinations in Malaysia; 3) Strong supports from Malaysian government, as well as their initiatives to concern, and develop this business now and future. Piracy and safety have been identified as the main threats that create risks for the cruise business in Malaysia

The impact of traffic congestions on tourist behavior: Case study of Chiang Mai, Thailand

Traffic congestions in major cities of Thailand is a persistent issue to foreign tourists. 2 major cities, Bangkok and Chiang Mai were perceived the most congested cities in Thailand. However, Chiang Mai was considered the worst due to poor public transportation systems as compared to Bangkok. This research aim to explore the condition and the impacts of traffic congestion on tourist attitude pertaining to travelling within Chiang Mai. Qualitative approach was used in this research. Interviews and site observations were conducted as the form of data collection. ABC Models of Attitudes was used as an approach to assists questionnaire development for interview. While, bottleneck approach which relates to demand exceeding capacity in a punctual location by TRB (2000) was used as the congestion indicator in site observation. Past literatures concerning tourist behaviour and traffic congestion in tourist area were incorporated to triangulate and to support the data gathered. The findings denote that the foreign tourists perceived negatively towards the traffic congestion in Chiang Mai. This perception have led them to prefer destinations that are away from traffic and within walking distance from their accommodations

Thailand wine tourism: A dream or a reality?

Conventionally, wine tourism is mainly popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Europe regions. Interestingly, Thailand despite being a young wine producing country has emerged as a potential wine tourism provider within the Southeast Asia regions.This research aimed to evaluate the competitiveness of Thailand wine tourism’s within its regional growth. Porter’s Four Diamond Model was used as a tool to assess this industry competitiveness. Three wineries in Thailand were visited and qualitative approaches comprising interview and observation were utilized as the means of data collection. Triangulation was used to analyse the reliability of the data gathered. The finding showed that wine tourism in Thailand was still an infant industry as most tourists and tourism operators were still not aware of the product offered. However, the wineries themselves had already owned the competency to serve the market

Hotel co-branding: Is 2 better than 1?

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of co-branding strategy in improving the hotel’s perceived service tangibility. The existing literature on improving service tangibility was found little and there are relatively little effort has been made to explore co-branding effect in tangibilizing services. Methodologically, the development of hypotheses was constructed base on the concept of service tangibilization dimensions by Laroche et al (2003). Primary Data has been collected through the use of a questionnaire. In analysis, the gaps between co-branded and standalone hotel’s brand were measured. Empirical findings showed that co-branding is positively related to the perceived tangibility of the hotel service. Interestingly, the perception of service tangibility is hardly seen as a result of the brands synergy but mainly the interpretation of the dominant brand in the partnership. These findings suggest that the act of pairing with a product brand may lend credibility to a service brand, even when one or both of those constituent brands are perceived as having low brand equity. Hence, brand partnership should be considered by hotel branding managers in pursue of better market recognition in relation to product and services positioning

The “Noble” impacts of mass tourism on Bali island: The local community prospective

This study explores the impacts of mass tourism on the culture, social, environmental and economic of Bali islanders, Indonesia. A total of 20 in-depth interviews of local Balinese who residing in Bali island was conducted at the site. Judgmental sampling was used based on stringent criteria of “localness” and demographic diversity. Interview questions were developed on the basis of openness in exploring thoughts and perception towards mass tourism and its impacts to the livelihood of the Balinese islanders. Thematic analysis was used in analysis the data and 4 themes emerged as the results of the study: i)economic opportunities; ii) spillover effects from foreign competitions; iii) bearable cost of living and; iv) safer environment. Findings suggested that the sampled respondents did not show significant concerns over the effect of mass tourism. In contrast, the respondents show substantial degree of likeness and supports towards high influx of tourists. Findings seem to contradict to the past studies suggesting mainly negative impacts to the local community however, it was different here in Bali island

Price or pride? Malaysian marine cruising behaviour

Despite substantial investments and promotional efforts in developing cruise tourism in Asia, cruise liner managers and marketers are given little indication concerning the effectiveness of their current marketing programs in driving consumer intentional behaviour. This study of a cruise liners’ marketing program validates the position of emotional value, social value and perceived novelty on the consumers’ intention to cruise. While marketing programs for cruise vacation in their current form do offer some brand building benefits, their effect on cruising intention is significantly stronger for younger customers who are inclined to brand as a self-reflection. In contrast, the price has no direct effect on intention to cruise. Therefore, this cruise marketing program does provide some value, but conceivably not in the way the cruise liner company wishes. The cruise industry should anticipate their customers’ perpetual characteristics (i.e. their interpretation of luxury vacation and perceived importance of social status reflection through choice of vacation) and review these marketing approaches to ensure that they able to reach out to their customers better rather than just attracting price sensitive customers

Review of problems in the development of rail tourism in Taiwan, on the example of the Alishan Forest Railway

Rail tourism is significant in boosting Taiwan’s tourism industry with more than 560,000 tourists visited Alishan railway, one of the most significant heritage rail tourism sites in 2018. However, recently more attentions and efforts were being put on High-Speed-Rail instead of heritage rails in Taiwan. As the Taiwan Railways Administration launched the 10 years plan in replacing the heritage rail, it has raised the question of sustainability of the heritage rail tourism in Taiwan. The study aims to assess the challenges faced in developing heritage rail tourism in Taiwan by using the Porter’s Diamond Model as the assessment criteria. The data was collected through a variety of methods inclusive of interviews, observations, and review of challenges faced in the process of preparing the existing heritage railways for the future of Taiwan’s rail tourism. This study found that despite the popularity, financial subsidies and extensive promotion effort by Taiwan Railways Administration, the heritage rail tourism in Taiwan is still facing difficulties in remaining sustainable in the long-run due to inefficient firm strategy, poor pricing strategy, and also non-user-friendly online ticketing system

Deciphering food hawkerpreneurship: Challenges and success factors in franchising street food businesses in Malaysia

This study investigates the challenges and identifies the critical success factors in transforming traditional hawker food into a franchisable business, principally within the context of Malaysia. This study aims to provide guidelines that could support the process of enterprising traditional street food businesses, especially to assist the mobilization and promotion of hawkerpreneurship for existing traditional food hawkers and future adopters. A total of five hawkerpreneurs and four traditional hawkers were qualitatively assessed through semi-structured interviews. As a result, four critical challenges that both hawkerpreneurs and traditional hawkers encountered were identified, namely: (1) exploring the unknown (2) high capital investment for total “make-over” (3) lack of knowledge in brand repositioning, and (4) resistance to automation and standardization, particularly as a way to retain authenticity. By considering these concerns, young entrepreneurs and financial investors can assess the potentiality and feasibility of hawker food, and identify areas to focus on in running a successful traditional street food business. The results of this study could further assist in developing the support mechanisms and start-up strategies that encourage the adoption of hawker food entrepreneurship among Malaysians

Conserving Bali’s heritage sites: The power of unwritten laws

This study examines the efforts of heritage conservation on Bali Island specifically in heritage sites. The Global Sustainable Guidelines published by UNESCO were used as areas of assessment as well as the benchmarks for results analysis. A total of four areas of conservation components introduced by UNESCO - Hoi An Protocols: 1) Identification and Documentation, 2) Safeguarding Tangible Aspects, 3) Safeguarding Intangible Aspects and 4) Heritage and the Community were examined. This study applied three research techniques: (1) Secondary Data Analysis, 2) In-depth Interviews, and (3) Site observation in collecting data pertaining to laws, policies, strategies, guidelines, perceptions, and tangible evidences of conservation efforts in Bali. A total of twelve reports pertaining to heritage governance in Bali, five local tourism experts, and five heritage sites were sampled for analysis, interview, observation and evaluation. Thematic analysis was conducted to examine the performance of each heritage conservation area followed by benchmarking analysis to conclude on the level of compliance against the standards suggested by UNESCO. Findings suggested that the conservation efforts vary according to areas, with standardisation of laws and enforcement basically non-existent. Hence, the results indicate a concerning gap in law enforcement and execution of heritage conservation on Bali Island. Interestingly, the local community do not show much concern over heritage deterioration. They place great confidence over unwritten laws which are passed down from generation to generation concerning ways of conserving both tangible and intangible heritage. This study has contributed to the understanding of heritage sites conservation on Bali Island. Moreover, this study provides practical and realistic implications that could improve the governance of site heritage conservation on Bali Islan