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ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 224 (2016) 360 – 367

6th International Research Symposium in Service Management, IRSSM-6 2015, 11-15 August 2015, UiTM Sarawak, Kuching, Malaysia

Ecotourism Product Attributes and Tourist Attractions: UiTM Undergraduate Studies Abang Zainoren Abang Abdurahmana,*, Jati Kasuma Alib, Lenny Yusrina Bujang Khedifc, Zubaidah Boharid, Johanna Adlin Ahmade, Silverina Anabelle Kibat f a, b, c, d

Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak, Jalan Meranek, Kota Samarahan, 94300, Malaysia e Universiti Teknologi MARA Pulau Pinang, Permatang Pauh,13500, Malaysia f Universiti Teknologi MARA Sabah, Beg Berkunci 71, Kota Kinabalu ,88997, Malaysia

Abstract Ecotourism is one of the core tourism products that is highly promoted by the government of M alaysia. In Sarawak, ecotourism is one of the means for income and employment opportunities in the rural communities due to the integrative nature of the state’s resources that combines culture, nature and adventure into one ecotourism package. As such, Sarawak is one of the states in t he country that is experiencing the growing numbers ecotourism assets. However, apart from providing the ecotourism attractions, there is also a great need to understand the attributes that attract tourists to ecotourism destinations. These attributes are important in enabling tour operators and ecotourism providers in luring desirable tourists with the right ecotourism product. This paper ranked five pre-determined dimensions (nature, culture, sustainability, people and history) of the ecotourism attributes based on its importance. These attributes were further tested to determine their relationship with a tourist’s tour intentions. The methodology included a questionnaire survey distribution to 364 respondents in UiTM Sarawak, Kota Samarahan. In addition, factor analysis had been conducted to determine the ecotourism product attributes. As a result, four new attributes of ecotourism product were identified. They included cultural, natural, attraction, and community attributes. M ultiple regression analysis revealed that cultural is the most important attribute that influence tourist tour intention as compared to other identified attributes. It is important for operators to consider all identified attributes in developing strategies that can boost a tourist’s tour intention. However, the allocation of resources for strategy development must be based on the rank of importance of the attributes namely cultural, attractions, community, and natural. © Published by Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ©2016 2016The TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of Universiti Teknologi M ARA Sarawak. Peer-review under responsibility of the Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak Keywords: ecotourism; product attribute; tourist attraction

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-012-845-4410; fax: +6-082-678-300. E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.388

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1. Introducti on Ecotouris m is one of the core touris m products that is highly pro moted by the government in Malaysia. In Sarawak, ecotouris m is one of the means of income and employ ment opportunities in the rural commun ities due to the integrative nature of the state’s resources that combines culture, nature and adventure combine into a single package. By definit ion, ecotourism strives to focus on conservation and preservation and has social and economic benefits (Jain i, Anuar & Daim, 2012). Currently, Sarawak is one of the states in the country that is experiencing the growing number of ecotourism assets. Despite having ecotourism attractions, there is also need to understand the attributes that attract tourists to ecotourism destinations in the first place. Understanding these attributes provides managerial input for tour operators and ecotourism p roviders to lure potential tourists with the right ecotourism p roduct needs. The necessities to understand ecotourism attributes is due to the nature of the product itself. A ltinay (2000) note s that most ecotourism destinations are hard to reach due to transportation difficu lties and price is expensive. Such challen ges posed by ecotourism products create gray areas in understanding ecotourism criteria desired by the tourist. As such, the discussion of this paper is based on three objectives that encompass the following: x x x

To determine the ecotourism products attributes. To determine the rank of importance for the ecotourism product attributes. To determine the relationship between the ecotourism product’s attributes with tour decisions.

2. Literature review 2.1. Product attributes The attributes of ecotourism p roducts have been highlighted by many researchers in the past. Boyd, Butler and Haider (1995) identified naturalness, wild life, cu ltural heritage, landscape and community as important ecotourism criteria based on the regional landscape that it is linked to. On the other hand, tourism’s strength which creates impact is linked with mult iple dimensions including economic, cultural (Dyer, Gu rsoy, Sharma & Carter, 2007), social (Gursoy & Rutherford, 2004) and environmental dimensions (Yoon, Gursoy & Chen, 2001). Furthermore, most studies in ecotourism products attributes are based on aspects such as culture (Moulin, 1995), naturalness (Otto & Ritchie, 1996), sustainability (Dav id, 2011), people (Wang, Bickle, & Harrill, 2010; Aref, 2011), and history (Nijkamp & Riganti, 2008). However, there are still relatively few studies on ecotourism product attributes in Malaysia (Lo et al., 2012; Jaini, Anuar & Daim, 2012). 2.2. Natural environment Natural area of touris m represents a very wide category of the alternative forms of touris m (Puczko & Ratz, 2005). Tourism product does not only comprise the quality and productivity, but also the psychological environment, the subjective personal reaction and feelings experienced by consumers when consuming a service (Otto & Ritchie, 1996). Furthermo re, the ability of a p lace to attract tourists depends primarily on its environ mental quality (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1996), namely, its natural environ ment. It has been pointed by Kaltenbom and Bjerke (2002) that tourists visit a destination due to the want to experience and feel the truth of the environment. Ecotouris m provide these opportunities by bridging tourists with the natural environment in the rural areas. The psychological needs of the tourists to be in the natural environment prov ide a basis for the attribute. 2.3. Historical According to Harrison (2002), heritage tourism is one of the most suitable forms of tourism for sustainable economic and social development in the remote regions. There are many positive reasons why historic al heritage can be one of the ecotourism attributes. Heritage contributes to national and local co mmun ity identity (Co mmunit ies

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and Local Govern ment, 2009) and at the same time create jobs by providing leisure, creation and educational facilities (Nijkamp & Riganti, 2008). Adding further complexity, definit ions of heritage exist at different intellectual and cultural levels. Fo r different audiences, heritage pose different meanings depending on factors such as class, education, ethnicity and lifecycle (Goulding, 1999; Apostolakis, 2003). Heritage, therefore, needs to be defined in terms o f the people o r stakeholders who are interpreting it, rather than in the abstract, divorced fro m the people and their cultural references, values, institutions and norms (O’Reilly, 2005). As a result, different aspects of the heritage “product” can appeal to different types of people (Sab le & Kling, 2001; Harrison, 2002). The same heritage -related behavior can be undertaken by different people for very different reasons, including nostalgia, personal connection or education (Elliot & Shanahan Research, 1993; Goulding, 2000; Hannabuss, 1999). 2.4. Culture Cu ltural heritage co mprise both tangible and intangible aspects. Evans (2005) asserts that “culture is a critical aspect of med iating and articulat ing co mmunity need, as development is p lanned and takes shape, through culture’s potential to empower and animate”. Moulin (1995) states that cultural tourism is an opportunity for hosts and tourists alike to better know and understand the world by mirroring themselves and developing tastes and emotions that are rich with "place" experiences. In accord with this, cultural experience has been one of the values of ecotourism product through the deep involvement of the tourists with the host community at destination. 2.5. Community The sense of co mmunity plays an important role in fostering commun ity support for tourism development and enhancing its long-term sustainability as a broad basis for tourism develop ment planning (Hall et al., 2005). Bopp et al. (2000) defines sense of commun ity as “the quality of hu man relat ionship that makes it possible for people to live together in a healthy and sustainable way”. Thus, developing a sense of community enable s people to feel connected and motivated and wo rk together towards common goals. Sense of co mmunity can be seen as the capacity of the local people to part icipate in develop ment activities (Cupples, 2005). In accord with this, ecotourism allows tourists to be involved with the local co mmunity by part icipating in v illage activ ities through homestay programs. This is due to the rural nature of the ecotouris m destinations, which mostly require the involvement of the local co mmun ity in delivering service and experience to the tourist. 3. Methodol ogy The research study employed the self-administered survey, where a total 364 questionnaires were distributed to UiTM Kota Samarahan Campus 1 students in Sarawak. A total of 363 questionnaires were returned, validated, and deemed useable. The sampling size of 364 questionnaires was in accordance with Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) rule of thumb in acceptable sampling number. The questionnaire design consisted of four sections. The first section enquired the re spondents’ demographic profile while the second section consisted of 15 question items on Tourism Product Attribu tes, follo wed by Tour Intention in section C. Both section B and C used the five-point Likert Scale. Demographic profile was analy zed and categorized by using descriptive analysis. Instruments such as reliability analysis, mu lti regression analysis and factor analysis were employed to analyze Section B and C. 4. Results and analysis 4.1. Demographic profile The Table 1 presents the output of the descriptive analysis, which consists of the demographic profile of gender, age, race, and education level of the respondent.

Abang Zainoren Abang Abdurahman et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 224 (2016) 360 – 367

T able 1. Respondent's profile. Percentage Sex Male

30.9

Female

69.1

17 to 20

24

21 to 24

67.5

25 above

8.3

Age

Race Malay

48.5

Iban

24.8

Bidayuh

8

Others

18.7

Education Diploma

31.7

Degree

66.1

Others

2.2

4.2. Regression analysis The results fro m Tab le 2 conclude that Historical, Cultural and Natural d imensions are very impo rtant for tour intentions. In addition, People and Sustainable dimensions are consistently proven as most unimportant dimension as they ranked fifth and fourth in the table. Moreover, the significant values of these dimensions are above 0.05, whereas the p value must be below than 0.05. T able 2. Relative importance of dimensions of ecotourism product attributes Dimension

Standardized Coefficients Beta

Ranking

Significant

Attraction

.165

3

.004

Cultural

.209

2

.001

Community

.094

4

.071

Historical

.293

1

.001

Figure 1 shows the normal P-P plots of regression standardized residual. Th is shows that the expected cum prob at the X-axis line and at the Y-axis line are observed cum prob. According to Figure 1, the data is at 0.935, which indicates normal d istribution. On the other hand, Figure 2 presents the scatter plot, which is regression, standardized predicted at X-axis line and at the Y-axis line are regression standardized residual. The scatter plot indicates that the residual plot are randomly scattered in a constant with the band above the zero line. Runs of residuals above or below the zero line may indicate a non-linear relationship. The residuals are mostly within -2 to +2 SDs of zero which clearly indicate the residual are standardized (Draper & Smith, 1998).

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Fig. 1. Normal p-plot of regression standardized residual

Fig. 2. T he scatter plot

4.3. Factor analysis The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KM O) index was valued at 0.941 while the Bartlett sphericity significance was at 0.001. Thus, the index indicated that the variables were inter-correlated with each other. The Scree Plot in Figure 3 was used to identify the optimu m nu mber o f factors that can be extracted and it was done by plotting the eigenvalue against number of factors in their order of extract ion (Darlington, 1973). Fro m the figure, the fifth factor on the line is almost flat. Th is means that each of the successive factors accounts for smaller and smaller a mounts of the total variance. Hence this indicated that not more than five factors are expected to be formed. A ll the items were subjected for factor analysis utilizing the maximu m likelihood procedure which was followed by a varimax rotation. In accordance to Table 2, the decision to include a variab le in a factor was based on factor loadings greater than +_0.3 (Hair, 1995) and all factors whose eigenvalues greater than 1.0 were retained in the factor solution (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989). Hence, there were four factor identified, wh ich are Cultural, Attraction, Natural Environment and Community. The factor analysis had shown that the identified four eco -tourism attributes are HISTORICA L, CULTURA L, ATTRACTION and COMM UNITY. Standardized coefficient in order of importance is (1) HISTORICA L, (2)

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CULTURA L, (3) ATTRA CTION AND (4) COMMUNITY. However, the factors that have significant relationships with Tour Intention are HISTORICA L, CULTURA L and ATTRACTION. T able 3. Result of factor analysis

Cultural attraction is important element in ecotourism destination

.810

Ecotourism destination give me chance to explore other unique culture

.627

T he interesting cultural values can enrich my visit

.588

I prefer a ecotourism destination that are rich of cultural product

.556

Nowadays, it is important to share cultural product through ecotourism

.442

I am attracted to visit destination that sustain its culture.

.438

It is my pleasure being part of the learning "different culture" in the destination

.430

Visiting at ecotourism destination will make us appreciate others culture

.384

I choose to go to a destination that provide traditional facilities such as long house and “ sampan”

.767

T he historical place that I visit provides a learning experience

.685

I love to experience traditional activities such as dance and ritual.

.665

I prefer to visit a destination that offer interesting historical attraction

.624

I would choose a destination that maintain historical structures as heritage

.451

I choose to go to ecotourism destination that offers survival experience in the jungle

.432

T he destination do give environmental education program as part of the ecotourism package

.387

I choose a destination where the community respect the existence of wildlife

.744

I prefer to visit a destination where I can find rare animal species

.694

T he ecotourism destination provide a clean natural resources such as fresh water and marine resources

.565

T he destination that I visit always maintain its natural landscape

.560

I like to spend my holiday in a destination that has no pollution and contamination.

.558

COMMUNITY

ATTRACTION

HISTORICAL

CULTURAL

Component

I choose to go to places that has little communication problem

.749

Community attitude will affecting my visit to ecotourism destination

.714

Community acceptance and cooperation are vital for visiting

.563

I am glad to meet the local community that are very friendly

.507

365

366

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Fig. 3. T he Scree Plot

5. Recommendation Students from institutions of higher learning basically have the capabilities to tour through various students’ activities or social entrepreneurship project which had been finance d by the government, universities and the industry. These projects mostly target commun ity engagement for social entrepreneurship , particularly the rural areas. However, in Sarawak, most of the rural projects that can be participated in by the community are ecotourism in order to improve their income through environment, cu ltural and heritage preservation and sustainability. Thus, it is vital to clearly understand the factors that contribute to tour intention on ecotourism destination s. This study has identified four factors that contribute to student tour intention wh ich include HISTORICAL, CULTURA L, ATTRACTION and COMM UNITY. Thus it is reco mmended that items associated to HISTORICAL need to be explored and preserved further fo r new product development. It is impo rtant that the community at the same t ime needs to cooperate to share stories of the historical site, events and figure for documentation. These documented historical facts can be elements in package being offered to the target market. Train ing on story telling on h istorical facts need to be carried out for excellent delivery that can lead to tourist satisfaction. However, CULTURA L is also an important factor that can lead to tour intention. It is vital for documentation on various cultural product s to be inserted as element in the package developed. On the o ther hand, training on various cultural activities needs to be conducted to allow younger generations to understand and embrace the importance of preserving their culture. Likewise, COMMUNITY factor needs to be addressed to enhance tour intention. The community needs to be engaged with the eco-tourism project as they are part and parcel of the project. Thus, awareness -building and training need to be conducted for the community to ensure that their engagement is contributing to the eco-tourism project. The awareness-building and train ing programs can be conducted with the collaboration of various related government agencies, NGOs, and even established travel agencies. The well trained commun ity will able to handle the influ x of tourists and support the project for long term sustainability. Lastly it is vital to address the uniqueness of the package developed with creativ ity and innovation to highlight its differentiat ion for ATTRA CTION. The package should highlight adventure, experience, nature, and non -contamination. In o rder to achieve these, the package developed needs to be branded in relation to the target market with attractive themes. References Altinay, L. (2000). Possible impacts of a federal solution to the Cypus problem on the tourism industry of North Cyprus. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 19(3), 295-309. Aref, F. (2011). Sense of Community and Participation for T ourism Development. Life Science Journal, 8(1), 20-25.

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