AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON MUSLIM TOURISTS’ BEHAVIOUR TO MALAYSIA

Abstract

Muslim tourists are very much enthusiastic to select their travel destinations which have Islamic attributes; because tourism destinations having Islamic characteristics let them to accomplish their religious activities and duties. However, selecting tourist destination by Muslim tourists relies in Islamic attributes and order to accomplish some aspects of religious activities and duties. In all destinations, Muslim tourists seem to be skeptical, safety and crime. This study aims at examining the behavioural factors that pull and push Muslim tourists to choose Malaysia as the destination. Secondly, to determine the mediating effects of supports of tourist destinations on the relationship between pull factors and Muslim tourists’ behavior. The researcher adopted Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Leiper’s (2004) Tourism system Model and Dickman’s (1997) five A’s of a destination Model as guidance to conduct this study. A total of 563 Muslim tourists from 35 countries took part in this study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was considered to be an appropriate data analysis technique for this study of multiple dependent relationships proposed in the models of this study. A self-administrated questionnaire was developed to analyse Muslim tourists’ behaviour. The 5-likert scale was used in questionnaires. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of the scale. The pilot study had been conducted using smart PLS. This current study has confirmed that destination factors can be one of the strategies of tourism industry in calculating Muslim tourists’ behaviour (MTB) towards Islamic tourism in Malaysia. This component is explained by four determinants-Muslim Amenities, accessibility in Tourism, Suitable Accommodation and Destination Attraction. Besides this, destination factors substantiated the significant relationship with Muslim tourist behaviour (MTB). Finally, the findings of this study have confirmed that hospitality and infrastructural supports have significant mediating effect on the significant relationship between destination (pull) factors and Muslim tourist’ behaviour (MTB) in the Malaysian Islamic tourism.