TOURISM LANGUAGE E-PROCEEDING

1. INTRODUCTION

According to statistic by global air traffic – anual growth of Passenger demand 2006 to 2019,
reported that in 2018, global air traffic passenger demand is estimated to increase by 7.4
percent on the year before. By 2019, traffic is projected to grow with another five percent.
This proof that airline industry has become important in helping world trade, international
asset, and tourism activities due to globalization. Thus, resulted for the airlines industry
becoming the focus of globalization of other industries. Business entities in the aviation
industry has gained benefits from the growing of this industry such as provides opportunities
and challenges to their company. Strong competition between airlines is one of the factor
that has caused hardship to the companies due to many consumers that demands for better
service keep getting higher. Government around the world has taken the decision to release
the industry by allowing companies to form private airlines. Moreover, the strict rules on
safety flight is currently applied in almost all countries.

These require all industry player especially in the airlines to update both services and
technology endlessly for the betterment of consumers especially in terms of safety.
According to Lawton (2002), in line with the efforts to continuously innovate service, the
airline industry previously dominated by traditional airlines providing full service is
currently enlivened also by the low-cost airlines. Low cost airlines is define as promoting
low fares with basic services and no additional services are provided by full services airlines.

When doing business, the major goal is to satisfy customer needs and wants. Especially
in airlines industry passenger satisfaction is important to today’s competitive environment.
Moreover, the issues of passenger satisfaction arise when there are other companies that
can gives same benefits or beyond passenger’s expectation and it is considered value-added.
In most cases, the customers tend to become loyal to the company if they are satisfied with
the product services offered. Hence, Airlines company are putting extra efforts on their
improvement of services as well as products offered to distinguish themselves from other
competitors. In addition, many factors can provide pathways to Airlines company to improve
their customer satisfaction as well as determining the factor of the success in all operations.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW Customer Satisfaction

Based on Kumar (2012), Lombard (2009), Santouridis and Trivellas, (2010) they defines
customer satisfaction in services as the degree to which service performance meets or
exceeds the customer's expectations. However, Hui and Zheng (2010) claimed satisfaction as
an evaluative judgment of a specific transaction resulting from perceived quality. It is
considered as an emotional post-purchase evaluation or post-use as the result of processing
relevant information Emir Hidayat, Sutan and Rafiki, Ahmad & Fouad, Nawar. (2016).
Moreover, Hussain, Naseer & Hussain (2015) believes measuring customer satisfaction in the
airline industry is becoming ever more frequent and relevant due to the fact that the
delivery of high-quality service is essential for airlines' survival and crucial to the
competitiveness of the airline industry. Hussain, Naseer & Hussain (2015) also stated in his
study, considering the intense competition in the Airline industry, just satisfying customers is

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not enough because one should make sure the satisfaction level is until maximum level
which able to move towards brand loyalty and good relationship with customers.

However, Zeelenberg and Pieters (2004) argued customers who is dissatisfied with the
service, will show their feelings through their behavior. These will somehow give negative
behavioural responses on firm's profitability. Lastly, due to advancement in digital
communication, consumers can express negative feelings rapidly or by word-of-mouth,
which affected a business's performance either in a positive, or, negative way Babin and
Harris (2012). For example, negative Word-of-mouth can effect the firm’s status and
productivity. However, firm can still continue doing business again if they managed to
resolve customer’s problems and gain their satisfaction back. Suchánek, Richter, Králová
(2015) stated that customer requirements are met determined customer satisfaction and the
degree of meeting them then becomes the degree of product quality and every company
should struggle to reach the optimal level of quality to its products to meet the expectations
of their customers.

Company Image

Johnson M., Zinkhan G.M. (2015) defines corporate image as the perception being created is
an overall or total impresión and the image to be reflected is one that encompasses all of the
company functions and roles, thus company image is multidimensional. In addition to their
study company image includes information and inferences about the company as an
employer, as a seller, as an investment and as a corporate citizen. Based on readings from
Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
(2015) book series, information about a company's products, management, financial
structure, employees and position within an industry can be communicated to various
groups through advertisements, press releases, news stories, the demeanour of its
employees and other forms of communication.

However, (Shamma, H. M. 2012; Ponzi et. al., 2011) has found during a series of some
detailed interviews, company feeling, admire and respect, company confidence and overall
reputation is the dimensions for corporate image. Keller (1993) argued that corporate image
can be seen as a set of perceptions about a brand the consumer forms as reflected by brand
associations. According to Ngyun and Lelanc (2001) corporate image is related to the
different physical and behavioral attributes of the company, like; business name,
architecture, variety of goods or services, tradition, ideology, and to the feeling of quality
communicated by each person interacting with the clients of the company. The corporate
brand is intangible in nature and invaluable for the organization. Robert and Dowling (2002)
argued that the corporate brand is a valuable intangible asset, that is hard to impersonate,
and which may help corporation in achieving sustained superior financial performance. Good
brand image not only indicates that the brand has a positive image but also exhibits a higher
level of brand image strength in comparison to other brands (Kim and Kim, 2005).

(University of Pretoria etd – Le Roux, JRJ 2003; Richardson and Bolesh 2002) suggested that
highly regarded organisations protect their corporate images by maintaining high standards
of practice, no matter what the circumstances. They further explained the most admired

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organisations use a combination of corporate social responsibility, vision and leadership,
financial performance, products and services, etc., to build and maintain their image. Lastly,
(Nikou, S., et al 2016; Normann 1991), image is considered to influence customers’ minds
through the combined effects of advertising, public relations, physical image, word-of-
mouth, and their actual experiences with the goods and services

Service Quality

Zahari, Salleh, Kamaruddin and Kutut (2011) defines service quality as the essence of airline
companies which makes their image differentiate from others and keep their image in the
minds of passengers. Many Airlines operators decided to go for the same path of higher
service quality through on ground and off ground service. For instance, inboard meal plays
major roles in many airline operation and has upgrade marketing strategy into a new level.
Therefore, this paper portrays the reaction of customers through inflight meals to see the
satisfying level and re-flying intention. This can be concluded that food also have an effect on
flying intention as well as sacrifices the inboard customers.

The airline industry is inherently unstable (Doganis 2006) and highly competitive, where all
airlines have comparable fares and matching frequent flyer programs. SERVQUAL is one of
the best models for evaluating customers’ expectations and perceptions (Pakdil and Aydm,
2007; Chen, 2008). Service quality can be measured in terms of customer perception,
customer expectation, customer satisfaction, and customer attitude (Sachdev and Verma
2004). This is supported by Ekinci (2003) that the evaluation of service quality leads to
customer satisfaction.

Providing excellent service quality is widely recognized as a critical business requirement
(Voss et al, 2004; Vilares & Coehlo, 2003; Van der Weile et al, 2002). It is ‘not just a corporate
offering, but a competitive weapon’ (Rosen et al, 2003). Furthermore, this study decides to
categorize along 4 factors, namely caring, reliability, responsiveness and tangibles.

Caring is the service dimension that focuses on individualized attention or care, such as
providing the seat a passenger prefers or meals through a pre-order system or having a
Frequent Flyer Program (Bloemer, Ruyter, & Wetzels, 1999; Cunning, Young, & Lee, 2004;
Park et al., 2004).

Reliability is the ability to perform the service in an accurate and dependable manner.
Reliability can be described as the ability to perform service dependably and accurately, such
as punctuality, efficiency of the check-in process, and convenience and accuracy of
reservations and ticketing (Kim and Lee 2011).
Responsiveness refers to the willingness to provide help and prompt service to customers.
According to Kim (2010), responsiveness is related to the willingness to help passengers
solve service problems (flight cancellation and baggage loss), response to emergency
situations, as well as prompt and accurate baggage delivery.

Tangibles are defined as the physical facilities of the aircraft: seating comfort, seat space and
legroom, in-flight entertainment service (books, newspapers, movies, games, and

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magazines), appearance of the employees, and meal service that is freshness, quantity, and
appearance

3. METHODOLOGY

The objective of this study is to understand the customer satisfaction in low-cost airlines
from the customer perspective. More specifically, this study attempts to identify how service
quality and company image affect customer satisfaction in Air Asia company.

To achieve this objective, quantittative data was collected from customers who choose Air
Asia as their air transportation. Respondents in this study amounted to 169 respondents
from Air Asia customers were selected based on non-probability sampling method in Kuala
Lumpur International Airport KLIA. The data was collected by using survey questionnaire.

Service quality construct was measured based on instruments developed by Parasuraman
et.al., (1988) consisting of reliability, responsiveness, caring, and tangible dimension. The
measurement of the study is using SERVQUAL method. Customer satisfaction was anchored
by satisfaction with the service and quality company image offered by Air Asia. All of these
variables were measured with six Likert scale: strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6).
Prior to data collection, all of the items to measure the constructs have been consulted to
academicians to ensure the validity. In addition, reliability test of service quality and
customer satisfaction variable has satisfied the reliability requirement as the value of
Cronbach Alpha is above 0.80.

4. RESULTS

Characteristics of Respondents

Of 37 respondents which are proof useable, 16.2% were male, 83.8% were female, 97.3%
were single, and 2.7% were married. In terms of income, 16.2 % respondents of earn less than
RM 1,000.00/month. While the majority of low-cost airlines respondents (67.6%) has no
monthly income. These figure indicates difference segment of income, low cost airlines
customers tend to be lower income segments.

Customer Satisfaction on the Airline Service Performance

Customer Satisfaction on the Airline Service Performance on the airline is presented in Table

1.

Table 1: Overall Mean Score on the Research Variables

NO. ITEM MEAN SCORE

1Caring 4.58

2Reliability Responsiveness 4.19
3 4.41

4Tangibility Company Image 3.95
5 4.39

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From the overall mean, it shows the highest value of mean is caring elements which covered
about 4.58 out of 6 Likert Scale. Followed by the second highest, responsibility with has total
mean is 4.41. The other elements such as customer satisfaction, company image, reliability
and tangibility have a total mean 4.19, 4.39, 4.12 and 3.95 with the neutral level in the scale of
measurements. From the overall section, the distribution of the mean value is between 3.95
and 4.58

What is the customer satisfactions towards Air Asia Management

Table 2: Descriptive analysis for Customer Satisfaction

Item Statistics Std. N
Mean Deviation 37
37
I like flying with Airasia 4.43 .835 37
4.19 .811 37
My expectations toward Airasia were met 4.03
.833 37
My satisfaction with Airasia has increased from time 4.05
to time .848

My impression toward Airasia has improved

I have a more positive attitude towards Airasia 4.27 .871

The first research question was answered by finding on what is the customer satisfaction
towards Air Asia management. Based on the result the highest mean of the statement is “I
like flying with Air Asia” with mean value 4.43. While the second highest is referred to the
statement “I have more positive attitude towards Air Asia” with mean value 4.27. The lowest
feedback from the customer is “My satisfaction with Air Asia has increased from time to time”
with mean value 4.03. This finding is consistent with studies by Gures et, al. (2014). The
findings of studies that satisfaction is the customers’evaluation of a product or service in
terms of whether that product or service has met their needs and expectations. Moreover,
one of the comments in open ended said “I love Air Asia” hence indicates that the
respondent like flying with Air Asia because the service delivery by Air Asia can satisfy the
customer’s need. In Addition, studies by Chandrashekaran (2007) also proves that customer
satisfaction represents the resulting overall affective response after consumption and can
range from dissatisfied to satisfied. Therefore, the comments by the respondents reveal the
actual practice of service delivery by the Air Asia management has fulfilled the customer’s
satisfaction. One of the respondents gives good review on the food that is prepared by Air
Asia in the open-ended question hence contribute to overall mean for customer satisfaction.

Is there a positive relationship of company image and services quality toward customer
satisfaction of the Air Asia Management?

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Table 3: Results for Multi Regression analysis on variables conducted

Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Standardiz t Sig. 95.0% Confidence Collinearity Statistics
Coefficients ed Interval for B Tolerance VIF

Coefficient
s

B Std. ErrorBeta Lower Upper
Bound Bound

(Constant) .564 .601 .937 .356 -.663 1.790

CI .705 .165 .676 4.267 .000 .368 1.042 .484 2.067
1 CRG -.111 .134 -.133 -.829 .414 -.384 .162 .468 2.135
.072 .152 .076 .474 .639 -.238 .382 .468 2.139
RLB .158 .091 .236 1.727 .094 -.029 .345 .652 1.533
TNG .027 .176 .024 .150 .881 -.333 .386 .466 2.145
RSP a: Dependent Variable: CS

Company image also is important for customer’s satisfaction. Image tells customer
everything about the company. It is more into the reputation, brand name of the company.
Image can be positive and negative for the company. It based on how the company shows
the image towards customers. In researcher study, airline must have a good image, to attract
customers to using their services. The image was also connected with comparison with other
competitors in airline industry. Therefore, they must build a good relationship between their
customers to ensure reputation of company in mind of customers. The communication
through the media, magazine, promotion, will support to build better company image at
present and future. The image includes colors, symbols, words, and slogans that convey a
clear, consistent message and not simply the name (Berry et al., 1988). Gronroos (1982) tried
to improve this model by focusing on what customers perceive. Therefore, they see service
quality as three dimensions which include functional and technical quality and image.

To determine the significant relationship of company image and services quality toward
customer satisfaction of the Air Asia management, multiple regression analysis had been
done to achieve the outcome. Based on the result, it shows the independent variables,
namely company image has significant influence on the customer satisfaction as the result of
significant value is less than 0.05. Therefore, the hypothesis between company image and
customer satisfaction is accepted. This is the same with the findings by LeBlanc and Nguyen
(1996) and Yoon et al. (1993) studies that reputation and image are closely linked together
as it influences customer’s expectations (Nejati et al., 2009). With the result also, the
researcher can determine how far the influencing of the independents variables affect the
performance of customer satisfaction on Air Asia management. It also shows that the
independents variable company image a positive influence on the customer satisfaction of Air
Asia management.

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For the independent variable of service quality, the result shows that there is no significant
values between service quality and customer satisfaction in Air Asia this is because the p
value is greater than 0.05. This study is consistent with (Noor, 2005) shows this insignificant
effect is most likely due to customer expectations to low cost airline services such as low
physical factors. In addition, study by Suhartanto, Dwi and Noor, et,al. (2012) shows as a
consequence, low cost airlines customers do not have a high expectation on physical
element of airline. The researchers further explain as a result, the use of relatively old
aircraft will less likely affect customer satisfaction in low cost airlines.

H1, p<0.05 shows result is significant therefore hypothesis one is accepted.
H2, p>0.05 shows insignificant result therefore hypothesis is rejected

5. CONCLUSION

The study adopted the service process system of airline service quality delivery such as from
check-in process to in-flight services on to post-flight services such as on-time arrival,
baggage handling system and customer relationship management. Generally, the study has
established that Air Asia airline passenger value in-flight services, reliability of airline
services, staff responsiveness and efficient baggage handling services. To this end, it can be
inferred that on-time departure and arrival, dependable flight schedule, the responsiveness
of the staff towards the customer also the conditions of the airplanes and the reputation of
company image play a major role in determining customer satisfactions. In the light of this
development, it can be stated that airlines stand to lose their customers if they fail to
improve the reliability of their operations. Consequently, it is recommended that low cost
airlines should provide continuous training on good customer relations, remain responsive
and proactive to their customers demand as well as ensuring on-time departure and arrival
in their flight operations. The study also suggests that to improve service reliability and
company image airlines should consider forming strategic flight standard of procedures in
order to improve and standardize the quality of service and delivery thus adequate market
coverage.

Acknowledgment: In the name of Allah SWT, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. First and
foremost, I would like to thank my Creator, Allah the Almighty for his grace and blessing for
giving me the strength, functioning body and mind to live and learn, and particularly to work
and complete my research. My special thanks and respectful gratitude to my lecturer Dr.
Mazni Saad for her valuable guidance, supervision, support and help throughout completing
this research. Thanks a lot for all knowledge, recommendation, suggestions, opinion,
comments continuous reminder and advice to make this research accomplished.
Furthermore, I would like to express to all my friends for support and knowledge shared in
finishing this research.

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Proceedings of the 3rd International Language & Tourism Conference 2019
Sustaining Global Development Goals through
]Language, Education and Tourism

Kulliyyah of Languages and Management, International Islamic University
Malaysia, Pagoh Edu Hub, Malaysia 18th-19th October 2019

EDUCATIONAL TOURISM: UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS' INTENTION TO
PURSUE THEIR EDUCATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION HUB PAGOH
Muhamad Irfan Bin Bustaipo
Bachelor of Tourism Planning and Hospitality Management
Kulliyah of Languages and Management
International Islamic University Malaysia
Pagoh Edu Hub

(E-mail: [email protected])

ABSTRACT

The competition in recruiting adequate international students and forming attractive image
for them are the examples of problems facing by the universities nowadays. Therefore,
understanding what influences international students’ intention are very important to
universities especially for the new campus, Kulliyah of Languages and Management
International Islamic University Malaysia. This study presented an investigation on the
relationship between the cognitive and the motivation of KLM international students to
further their study in KLM and directly identify both of the KLM cognitive images and
motivation of the international students. In order to accomplish the study, a qualitative
approach that comprised the interview with the international students were conducted. After
the thematic analysis of the interview that involved 5 local students, the result showed that
the main cognitive image of KLM IIUM was the physical infrastructure. On the other hand, the
result also indicated that most of the international students mentioned their main motivation
to come to KLM IIUM is the motivation to seek knowledge. Finally, this study also proved the
significant relationship between the cognitive image and the motivation of KLM students to
further their study in KLM IIUM. Since little research concerning the destination image building
toward the non-profit corporate organization, this study surely filled the gap and helped KLM
IIUM to pay more attention to key motivation and image building that will affects their
institutional choice and university satisfaction.

Keyword: Destination Image, Cognitive Image, Marketing, Motivation, Branding, University

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Establishing a viable corporate image in the marketplace and accepted by society is
important in order to create a consistent image that suitable to meet demand of all the
potential group among the public (Haedrich, 1993). It is essential for any organization to
project a strong and positive image and reputation to their stakeholders, namely the
employees, consumers, investors and especially the public due to the nowadays competitive
environment (Fatt et. al, 2000). Although organization image is one of the most significant
and studied frequently with regard to the corporate sector, there is still paucity in the
research and understanding of the organizational image in the non-profit arena (Arpan.M.L,
2003). Throughout this paper, this study systematically seeks to analyse the cognitive image
of Kulliyah of Languages and Management and the motivation of the international students
to further their study in Kulliyah of Languages and Management. Malaysia is chasing the
increasing trends of knowledge intensity globally but unfortunately, one of the untapped
forms of tourism in Malaysia is the educational tourism. Therefore, in general this
comprehensive research is being proposed to contribute to the awareness to ensure that
Malaysia government recognize the relevance of this industry. Development of destination
image is important for a corporate organization such university. According to Morgan and
Pritchard (2002), a strong brand is important because it help to give a positive differential
marketing effect due to it attract more benefits perception and favourable attribute.
Without the strong differential marketing effect, the tourists have a freedom to choose from
a wide variety of destination often substitutable. On the other hand, this research will open
the door for KLM IIUM to obtain a clear delineation on the expectation of the international
students. For the research objectives, this paper attempts to specifically identified the KLM
IIUM cognitive image, the motivations of IIUM international students in pursuing
educational tourism at KLM IIUM. This study as a whole will help KLM IIUM that may need to
involve in actively recruiting and encouraging the enrolment of the international students by
paying more attention to key motivation that will affects their institutional choice and
university satisfaction

2.0 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

A considerable amount of research has been published on the application of destination
image practice toward others profit based organization or major tourism destination for the
marketing purpose but there is insufficient information on the same kind of study with
different subjects that is non-profit organization that is university. To illustrate, Chung Hsien
Lin et al (2007) have published a paper on the Examining the Role of Cognitive and Affective
Image in Predicting Choice Across Natural, Developed, and Theme Park Destination and
Noela Micheal et al (2018) also have done the research the same area but the case study is
focusing in the Australia’s cognitive, affective and conative destination image from the
perspective of Emirati tourist . These articles are a part of the articles that focus on the
tourism destination and profit based organization yet there is lack in the similar kind of
study that conducted particularly about university.

Besides that, it should be noted that there is a gap, differences and mis-matches on
preferred university image by students and the image that have been provided by the
university. This is because according to the Gronross (2013), university should establish a

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view with the strong students-relationship and social marketing instead of considering the
university choice as a matter of product. Students’ view point is one of the important
elements to be considered by greatly understanding how the students find the information
and decisions and also focus the marketing activities on the maintenance and development
of educational relationships with current, past, and future students as well as the
stakeholder involved such as the parents, teachers, colleagues and friends (Mai Thi Ngoc
Dao and Anthony Thorpe, 2014).

To add, Gallarza, Saura and Garcia (2002) stated that tourism itself are intangible and the
tourism destination images important to project the information that hugely influence the
perceived destination image by consumers. The effects on geographic (location of the
tourist), psychographic (Lifestyles, surrounding, social class), and demographic (the personal
information and background, experience) will encourage or influence their cognitive image
toward the KLM IIUM.

Hajar (2017) published a paper in which describes Malaysia as the most preferred choice for
education tourism due to the low cost living yet high quality of life. However, a recent study
proved that, those working in higher education will know that the sustainability of this
market is uncertain. Therefore, it is quit worrying that the number of international student
enrolments have not significantly increase during 2013-2019 especially in KLM. In an
analysis from the list of registered International students 2019 by KLM, the research found
that the pattern of international student’s enrolment year by year is quite uncertain. For
example, the number of students enrolled in 2016 are only 5 students and the number
decreased to 4 students in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, the number of international students is
slightly increase from 6 students in 2018 to 7 students in 2019. Therefore, this study is being
proposed solely to provide an ended to this trend and contributed to the increase on the
number of international students choosing KLM to further their study.

Lastly, KLM IIUM is situated in Pagoh that is a newly discovered and developed township
thus the biggest challenge that may face by KLM IIUM is establishing a good image on a new
place which have been unmanaged for a long time. According to Levine (2009), the “blank
slate problem” is one of the main issues that faced by 70% to 80% of all cities in U.S. The
“blank slate problem” mainly occurred due to the place have no dominant image at all in
public mind and absence of core differentiating asset or unique selling proposition. Recent
literature about university education highlighted that with the tight competition in higher
education, universities face the problem and great challenge in recruiting sufficient
numbers of students each year (Johnston, 2010), thus understanding the image that
influences student’s choice is vital especially for KLM IIUM.

3.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Specifically, the research questions of this study are:

RQ1: What are the cognitive Images of KLM IIUM Pagoh that influence the international
students in choosing this university to further their study?

RQ2: What are the international students’ motivations to further their study at KLM IIUM?

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4.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this research were developed based in a comprehensive literature review.
The objectives for this study are:
1. To investigate the KLM IIUM cognitive image that influence the international students in
choosing this university to further their study.

2. To analyse the motivations of IIUM local students to further their study at KLM IIUM.

5.0 METHODOLOGY

Research Design

To address the research objectives, qualitative approach was utilized. The study utilized
qualitative inquiry and specifically thematic analysis to examine the cognitive image and
motivation of the international students in KLM IIUM. Qualitative research is descriptive and
well suited to the study of cognitive image and motivation because it involves discovery on
how the International students view KLM IIUM from the cognitive and the process by which
the cognitive image influences the motivation of the international students to pursue
educational tourism in KLM IIUM.

The qualitative data were collected through the interview with the international students of
KLM IIUM. The students’ interview was recorded, and respondent are requested to answer
and reflect on a series of semi structed, open-ended questions. The preliminary version of
the questionnaire was pilot tested with the one international KLM IIUM students, who had
agreed to be interviewed about the topic.

Measurement

Interview

The qualitative approach that used in this study is in the form of the interview. A semi-
structured interview was used to verify and elaborate the results to tackle the research
objectives that is to investigate the KLM IIUM cognitive image that influence the
international students in choosing this university to further their study and also to identify
the motivations of IIUM international students to further their study at KLM IIUM. For the
interviews, a convenience sample of 5 international students of KLM IIUM were contacted
that varies from forth year to first year students. The interviews were recorded, and
respondents were asked to freely answer and reflect their opinion on a series of semi-
structured, open-ended questions. Part A is consisted of personal demographic profile, Part
B is about the cognitive image of KLM IIUM and Part C, about the motivation that influence
the decision to pursue educational tourism in KLM IIUM. The initial version of the questions
was pilot tested with 1 international students of KLM IIUM, who had agreed to be
interviewed at that stage.

Firstly, the interview session is start with a modicum of time was spent on defining the
terms of cognitive image and motivation to the respondents, and then the respondent was

53

given sufficient time to ask any questions pertaining the topic of the research. This action is
important to ensure that the interviewees fully understand the topic that will be discussed
during the interview session. (Patton, 1990). During the interviews, the researcher will play
the role as an observer and be conscious toward the interaction dynamics and respondent
responses along the interview session. This action is important to ensure the coding process
was free from any mistakes. Lastly, 20 to 45 spend on a single interview and it also depend
on the length of the answer from the respondents.

Data Analysis

Qualitative Analysis: Thematic Analysis

To determine the relationship between the two variables, a series of thematic analysis
phases have been performed. The next phases in the thematic analysis process is the
generating the initial coding and categorise data into themes. In order to achieve a perfect
result, the process should include coding, categorisation and noting patterns (Braun and
Clarke 2006). Besides that, it is compulsory to provide a relationship between the variables
and factors in order to create a reasonable and logical chain of evidence during the coding
and categorisation phases (Creswell 2009) To summarize, the data was coded into
“meaningful and manageable chunks of text, such as passages, quotations, single words…”
(Attride-Stirling, 2001)

6.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Result of The Interview

Thematic Analysis Coding
To determine the relationship between the two variables, a series of thematic analysis
phases have been performed.

Coding for KLM IIUM Cognitive Image

Table 6: Themes and Codes for KLM IIUM Cognitive Image

Theme: Theme: Theme:
Physical Elements Relationship Religion

Codes: New building Modern Codes: Social relationship Codes: Islamic environment
facilities Large space Family-like bonding Islamic teaching Islamic subject
Various facilities

Theme: Theme: Theme:
Institutional Natural elements Culture
Codes: IIUM image Codes: Wonder of environment Codes: Local culture KLM
Peaceful environment Culture

Physical Elements

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Many participants felt they one of the important cognitive images that is featured by KLM
IIUM is the physical elements. In the same vein, the research by Ravindrana and Kalpana
(2012) in his article notes that faculty reputation, institutional image, academic environment
in learning and research, size of the faculty, employment rate after graduation, opportunity
of financial aid, number of student population and spiritual atmosphere and location
of the University are the prime antecedents to local international students to choose a
higher learning institution for their further studies.

One individual stated that “KLM IIUM is it has a new facility, the quality is higher than if
compared to Gombak and the quality is higher, however. Alright, for example, the classroom
we have smartboard compared to Gombak we don’t have it, it’s one of the I mean that it
useful for the students and very modern classroom”. Significantly, the participant felt that
physical elements such as library facilities, computer laboratories, teaching facilities, access
to lecturers through the internet and a spacious classroom are the highest ranked cognitive
image among the others.

Besides that, most significant to participants of the current study were positive experiences
with infrastructure. A respondent responded that “I like the facilities in the classroom and
mostly, most of the class is a small class, so I can, it more efficient the lecture and they have
facilities such as the smartboard which is very convenient to support the study activity
there”. This statement confirming research findings about the physical element as one of
the important cognitive images of KLM IIUM.

According the above statement, on the institutional level especially management of KLM
IIUM must find ways to harness and develop the best teaching, to recognize and incentivize
excellent teaching, and importance of meaningful student-faculty contact as mentioned by
Astin (1993). Besides that, based on the researcher point of view, KLM students were easily
satisfied and amaze by factors relating to a comfortable learning environment, public spaces
and campus technology. It also can bee see that facilities related to core university activities,
such as teaching and learning, have a greater impact on student rather than support factors,
such as accessibility, bus stops, cycleways and walkways that rarely mentioned by the
respondents.

Relationship

Interestingly, some of the respondents claimed that relationship is the major cognitive
image of KLM IIUM. The researcher believes that If students are receiving support and
encouragement from their friend, they are likely to continue their educational pursuits. All
participants stated they felt supported and encouraged by friends as they navigated the
university going process; although it was not always in the form of support in completing
college-going steps, but more in general encouragement of attending and staying in
university. The evidence for this statement can be derived from a respondent that claimed:

“We all are new, the friend also friendly” and also other respondent claim that
it’s like a family, it’s family, it’s feel nice and the students portraying
something like welcoming image because like communication students and
hospitality students, they are very have a good quality of hospitality no matter

55

communication ones or the TPHM ones”.

Enhancement of relationship is apparently an obvious cognitive image by referring to the
two statement above, which confirmed that KLM IIUM have the good relationship quality
that attract the international students, to enjoy studying here without being lonely. This
closed relationship is important in order to recall their memories towards nostalgic
moments with their family at oversea and help them to encounter the university life with
full spirited. It also can be assumed that due to KLM IIUM is the only Kulliyah that exist in
the area and also influence by the factor that most of the students are sharing the same
hostel, it significantly enhanced the social relationship between all the students in KLM
IIUM.

Religion

The respondents acknowledge that religion is one of the clearest cognitive image for KLM
IIUM. Haq (2014) revealed that the influence of spirituality may have a positive impact on
the individual for the intention to select a particular destination to visit. Religion elements in
KLM absolutely constitute a large part of excitement of the participant to further their study
in KLM. A participant shared that:

“I like the culture, the culture is quite similar with Muslim in Vietnam and in
Vietnam we don’t really have that, that much knowledge. I would say about
religion, they still false information they spread there, so when I came here it
help me a lot like to enlighten me”.

Besides that, the participants often shared their interest in learning the Islamic related
course that offered by KLM that directly reflected the Islamic Image of KLM:

“The islamization of the study, like whatever that you study no matter what
the course or the subject but then you have to include the Islamic value
inside”.

Research from Ambroz and Ovsenik (2011) explained that the spirituality dimension is one
of the important motives for most of the travellers. Therefore, some of the respondents
shared their experience on studying subject that incorporated the Islamic element in KLM:

” I want to study about tourism. Mostly university in Indonesia they do not
offer more Islamic course. So, I choose IIUM I want to study tourism and
mostly university in Indonesia that offer the tourism programme they didn’t
offer the Islamic Value. Yeah, So, I looking for the university they have Islamic
value and everything in Islamic but still study in tourism’.

The results from their excitement toward the experience of spirituality religion element in
KLM influences the selection of the university.

Institutional

In 2005, Chen and Carroll published a paper in which they claimed growing up in a family in
which neither parent has gone to college may have long-term consequences on students’

56

success in postsecondary education. One participant expressed on the majestic name and
reputation of IIUM itself is the most prominent image of KLM IIUM. The respondents explain
that:

“I think because of the reputation of IIUM for to me, to Vietnamese Muslim in
Vietnam, IIUM very well-known by everyone because in the past a lot of
students”.

Besides that, a recent study by Marquez Kiyama (2010) examined that most of the
families look to those who have personal experience in going through the college process
and due to the lack of information sharing by secondary and post-secondary institutions,
many families use their social and familial networks to assist with the college process. In the
case of the respondents, the researcher can conclude that she believed that any students
that have going through studying in IIUM will success in their life, and she follows the foot
step by pursuing study also in IIUM:

“Vietnamese students have students here and very like have a successful life
right now”.

The above statement also proved that most foreign students in this study who made their
selection of a destination for education decision were highly influenced by loyalty that
create by the past stakeholder (friends, families, community).

Natural Elements

Based on the interview with the respondents, some of the students were most motivated
and mesmerize by natural attractions around KLM. Given that the KLM is a newly developed
are that still rich with the natural elements and free from pollution Muslim country,
probably explain why the international students in particular find the KLM is a pleasant and
comfortable university in which to live and study. The respondent acknowledges the
beautiful natural elements in KLM by saying that:

“Like I a person that not intro nature but once I come to Pagoh KLM, I see the
sky is very clear. The sky different and very great even the sunshine is very
beautiful. The sky is very appealing to me, they said that the sky the
environment. It quite peaceful compared to Gombak, it’s quite hectic. It very
peaceful”.

One study by Lewis (2013) supported the above statement by explained that “Good weather
and health-related factors often trigger world tourists to escape and travel overseas for a
better life sustaining environment even for a temporary time span”.

Culture

International students already studying in the Malaysia are motivated to stay in the KLM
because they can maintain personal relationships and avoid the culture shock associated
with adjustment to life in an alien culture. For example, one of the respondents claimed that
the culture in her origin country is quite similar to Malaysia country:

57

“I like the culture; the culture is quite similar with Muslim in Vietnam”. In
identifying the culture elements in KLM IIUM cognitive image, one of the
striking results that emerged from the interview is one of the
respondents share their preference toward the KLM IIUM itself, “, I
think, we can have new environment by many cultures due to many
beautiful from Gombak culture. We also adapt to the new culture like in
Pagoh Culture. So, these are new culture for us like KLM culture. So, I
think it is interesting for me”.

Interestingly, according to the statement above, the respondents expressed his loved
toward the “KLM culture” that can be interesting issues to be discussed. In the researcher
point of view, “KLM culture” can be assume as the strong social relation between the
students in KLM that accidently create a culture toward the international students. Besides
that, the respondents mentioned also the cultural image of KLM IIUM is clear when KLM
offer the opportunity to mix with students and professors of different nationalities and
backgrounds:

“In KLM are majority of Malaysian, compared to the Gombak where I have
study first semester where all the people are mixed. It is hard to know what is
to learn about Malay. In KLM, the environment is really heritage, really
cultures and really tradition because I always mingle around with Malaysian. It
very interesting to explore the new culture”.

Coding for Motivation to Further Study in KLM IIUM

Theme: Theme: Theme:
Knowledge Subjective Norms
Codes: Courses offered Codes: Stakeholder influence Culture
Religious study Knowledge Financial aid Personal
interest/preference English preference Distance to home Codes:
based subject Self-improvement
Lecturer teaching Diverse culture

Experience

Local culture

Theme: Theme: Theme:
Social Religion Environment

Knowledge

Not all universities in the Malaysia offer a complete range of programs thus if a student
wishes to pursue studies certain program areas such as journalism, languages, tourism and
hospitality, only a subset of universities such as KLM IIUM would be considered as possible
destinations. One participant expresses his interest in languages courses and this is the main
motivation for him to choose KLM IIUM to further his study:

“Because I need to know, how the ARCOM? You know, Arabic for International
communication. Due to, there I never listen (hear) the ARCOM before, Arabic
for International. So, there Arabic for teaching, and there is Arabic for like
Arabic for other that is mean there is Arabic for teaching or what (we say) also
Arabic like BAR. So many universities have it. But ARCOM (Arabic for

58

International Communication) about international communication, that here
KLM Have It”.

Another participant feel that he is primarily interested in a certain course that only offer in
KLM IIUM that not available in other universities

“why I choose KLM IIUM itself when I analysing the course structure from a lot
of subject offered in IIUM, I feel like I want to learn about communication but
I don’t want to learn about literature which is exist in Indonesia. In Indonesia,
when you want to learn linguistic or communication you also have to take the
English literature, romanticism, the Shakespeare and I don’t just like it. And
here they choices about communication subject that like it, I choose ENCOM”.

Moreover, the respondents also claimed that they will prefer for the most comfortable and
interesting courses such as one of the respondents reported that she like to study tourism
and hospitality that balanced with Islamic and willing to learn them in English in order to
improve her English communication. Interestingly, KLM IIUM consider developing
procedures to help faculty and students understand and manage student expectations for
teaching and faculty-student interactions that claimed by a respondent which is

“Maybe from the course, and the way of the lecturer teaching. Student based,
students interest learning, it like leaner based and the way of the teaching and
same most of my lecturer is more in the students learning. It not just
teaching.”

Subjective Norm

Family can be a major support or deterrent from a student selection of university. Nora
(2004) stated, for international students in Latin, family plays a major role in the students’
success. If students are receiving support and encouragement from family members, they
are likely to continue their educational pursuits on the university that preferred. For
example, a respondent shared that her mother is the one that influence her decision in
choosing the university:

” It actually because of my parents, my mother want to want me to continue
my study here”.

In addition, Oesterreich (2000), point out that socioeconomic status is the greatest
determinant of enrolment and persistence in college for all students. As university tuition
increases and family income remains the same, a financial aid opportunity such as
scholarship will be the main motivation for the respondents to choose a certain university.
One of the respondents selected an institution that was less expensive due to the
scholarship that being offered:

“first is because there is foundation in Indonesia, in Malaysia, called Yayasan
khazanah. They are providing scholarship for the students from Bangladesh,
southern Thailand and Indonesia and fortunately I get it and they only

59

provided scholarship only for to study in IIUM, MMU and UNITEN. So, I choose
IIUM to further my study”.

Simoes & Soares (2010) hold a view that there has been a trend globally for more higher
education students to stay living at home, mainly for economic reasons, but also due to
emotional attachment to family and friends. Thus, this factor makes clear that aspects of
convenience considerably influence students’ choice of destination.

Interestingly, this study revealed that personal development appeared to be the most
important motive that triggers the international students to further their study in KLM IIUM.
In this interview, self-improvement factor comprised the attributes relating to the desire to
learn new knowledge and improve the soft skills. The evidence is reported by a respondent
on

“I am hoping can studying more Islam, because previously when I study in
Indonesia, it very liberal and I feel I been quite far from the god. So, I feel like I
want to retain, and I saw like in the course it offers some Islamic subject in the
course structure such UNGS and Quran and hadith and so on. And it attracts
me to enrolled in IIUM”.

Accordingly, personal development also can be considered based on the claimed by a
respondent that eagerly to learn to communicate in English:

“One more because we study in English and this will help to improve my
English “.

Culture

Since KLM featured a lot of nationality in a university, the international students can equip
themselves with new knowledge and experiences about the local culture while studying.
This was achieved through their willingness to explore such activities as meeting new
people, knowing way of life of the local people and learning new culture in host destination.
For instance, the respondents said that:

“In KLM are majority of Malaysian, compared to the Gombak where I have
study first semester where all the people are mixed. It is hard to know what is
to learn about Malay. In KLM, the environment is really heritage, really
cultures and really tradition because I always mingle around with Malaysian. It
very interesting to explore the new culture”.

Based on the interviews with the respondents, it was discovered that they are enjoying the
diverse culture experience in KLM and having many opportunities that expand the
knowledge about various culture. The respondent felt that due to the multicultural aspect of
KLM, they are motivated to come and study in KLM:

“I think, we can have new environment by many cultures due to many
beautiful from Gombak culture. We also adapt to the new culture like in
Pagoh Culture.

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So, these are new culture for us like KLM culture. So, I think it is interesting for
me”

Social

Interestingly, Malaysia is known as a collectivistic society in which bonding at an extended
family level is still strongly nurtured. Having positive social support is the number one thing
that motivate the international students to choose KLM IIUM to further their study. Strong
evidence of this statement was founded when the respondents said that,

“IIUM Pagoh is more different than IIUM Gombak, due to the first thing, study
environment, friend, when here we have a lot of friend, and when in Gombak,
sometimes we only at the room”.

Religion

Some university is chosen by students is solely for their rich spiritual resources. The
outcome of this interview showed that most of the international students motivated to
come to KLM is due to their willingness to discover and explore Islamic and spiritual
environment. A respondent felt that KLM is attractive due to the environment that cultivate
the Islamic value,

“KLM IIUM offer the Islamic environment, and discipline and we can speak in
English also” and the environment in KLM is free from any false information
about Islam as being explained by another respondents, “I would say about
religion, they still false information they spread there (in Vietnam), so when I
came here it help me a lot like to enlighten me” .

The respondents also agreed that through the unique courses that are offered by KLM that
incorporate the Islamic element, they can discover the true teaching that they never learned
before and directly motivated them to come to KLM. This finding is support through the
Grayling’s (2003) research who explored the concept of spirituality behaviour by explaining
the points to a nature and the inspirational aspects of impact, influence the behaviour of an
individual to purchase an object or pursue a decision. For example, the respondent claimed
that

“KLM went for the islamization of the study, like whatever that you study no
matter what the course or the subject but then you have to include the Islamic
value inside”.

Environment

KLM successfully pay attention on the interaction with students that create environments
which students are more likely to thrive and graduate. A respondent felt that:

“while here (KLM IIUM) the environment is different. In China it is hard to
practice Islam. The reasons why I choose KLM is because of the Islamic
environment,”

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Relaxation is also featured as one of the motivations to further study in KLM by the
international students which corresponded to enjoy life, to escape from usual environment
by choosing to study in a new place they never visited before. A respondent reported that
KLM is very peaceful due to its surrounding that free from hectic and really suitable for the
students to study.

7.0 RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE STUDY

Although this study is among a few to advance new knowledge on cognitive image of KLM
IIUM and the motivation to further study there, it has limitations.

First, this study only focusses on the students’ cognitive view toward the KLM IIUM. Other
stakeholders such as students’ parents and administrative staff, however, are also the
important stakeholder that choose the KLM as their preference. Therefore, in order to
achieve a more holistic view on the KLM IIUM image and to broaden the output of the
research, it can be suggested to include all the stakeholder that related to KLM to be
respondents of the research.

Secondly, there may be other factor influencing the development of destination image.
However, this study will only focus on the cognitive image while there are more additional
brand associations that might helped better depict a overall image of the destination. For
example, there are many others brand associations such as unique image and affective
image were suggested by numerous tourism scholars that are crucial construct to form
tourism destination image. The other types of image also important to be included because
a more comprehensive result can be obtained through all three images view on KLM IIUM.
Future studies investigating on what is relationships for all the types of images (cognitive,
affective and unique image) how the adoption of the “student-as-customer” toward the
motivation to further study in KLM are highly suggested.

Thirdly, the study confines the analysis of some demographic data that could go further by
measuring and testing other cluster of sampling. It is important to highlight that, students
from other level of education such as master and doctorate students might have the
different view on the KLM IIUM. Hence, it is important to include their opinion in order to
gain insight on their opinion toward KLM IIUM. To improve the generalizability of the study
model, future studies might apply the study model to test with master or doctorate
students to fill gap of the study.

Lastly, this study was restricted to access the international students. Due to the little
number of the international students in KLM IIUM thus, it was difficult to reach to the whole
international student population within a specific time limit. The researcher has to
reconsider to distribution method for further study in order to increase the response rate.

8.0 IMPLICATION

Despite the above limitations, this study represents a first attempt to analyse the KLM IIUM
Cognitive image and the motivation to further study there. Based on the analysis

62

throughout this research, knowledge about how student interest is developed can be used
by universities to develop strategies that make them more attractive for prospective
students (Hanssen and Solvoll, 2015).

The general infrastructure image of KLM is identified as the ones that most strongly
influence student overall satisfaction toward KLM, reflected the good reputation of the
institution and lastly enhanced the attractiveness of the institution itself. These findings
suggest that the university can improve its overall image by implementing measures that
improve the university’s reputation and by investing in university facilities. Moreover,
university management should exert pressure on upper management of the institution to
prioritize measures that support the wants and needs of the students, especially to attract
more students in order to achieve IIUM main vision that is to become a leading international
centre of educational excellence. It is the quality of the classroom and the technologies
inside the classroom that most strongly influence students cognitive view on KLM IIIUM.
Hence, investments in such facilities will have a significant effect on student and apparently
will help to attract more students in the future.

Besides that, this study offers significant conceptual contribution to educational tourism
motivation literature by extending our understanding of student’s motivation in pursuing
study in KLM IIUM. As seeking knowledge role in shaping KLM students’ motivation to go for
education tourism in KLM, it is expected that this study would stimulate more academic
discussions on educational tourism that seem lacking especially in Malaysia. Furthermore, as
knowledge appeared to be an important motivating factor for the students, KLM IIUM strive
for one of the IIUM vision that is integrates Islamic revealed knowledge and values in all
academic disciplines and educational activities, to improve the likelihood for the destination
to be selected by the international students.

The increased competition between universities is resulting a greater importance of those
education centres to have a great image as a way to obtain a competitive advantage. This
investigation sheds light on the higher education student cognitive image formation
process, showing that image can influence student motivation and loyalty. In addition, it is
possible to say that to measure and understand university image is very important because
of its influence over the student motivation creation process. If higher education institutions
have to compete through image, the first step to take is to identify the university image that
recognize by students. The second step should be to analyse how the constructed image is
formed and how it can be modified in order to better influence the motivation of the
students to further their study there. In this way, this research contributes towards
deepening the knowledge about university image and its importance for higher education
institutions in retaining current students and attracting new students especially in KLM
IIUM.

9.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the researcher managed to obtain the prominent cognitive image of KLM
IIUM that influence the students to further their study in KLM IIUM. Besides that, the
researcher also successfully identifies the motivation of the KLM students to further their
study in KLM IIUM. The most important thing is the research was done accordingly based on

63

the main objectives and managed to answer all the research questions that been outlined.

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Proceedings of the 3rd International Language & Tourism Conference 2019
Sustaining Global Development Goals through
Language, Education and Tourism

Kulliyyah of Languages and Management, International Islamic University
Malaysia, Pagoh Edu Hub, Malaysia 18th-19th October 2019

EFFECT OF COGNITIVE IMAGE TOWARDS TOURIST SATISFACTION IN
THEME PARKS MALAYSIA

Nur Inani Muhammad Zuki*1 and Siti Aisah Abas1
1 Department of Tourism, Kulliyyah of Languages and Management, International Islamic

University Malaysia, Pagoh Campus, Johor, Malaysia.
(E-mail: *[email protected])
ABSTRACT

This research intended to discuss the relationship between cognitive image influences
towards tourist satisfaction in theme parks. Destination image becomes a notion and crucial
especially from industry perspective due to the ability to determine the successes of the
destination and also help in constructing strategic marketing for a destination. On the other
hand, Cognitive image is important to the management of the theme park because
cognitive image can identify what tourists prefer in a destination. This research employed
quantitative approach by using questionnaire and distributed among tourists who have
been to the selected theme park in Selangor. The finding was revealed that the image of
the destination can be explore more than the cognitive image context. This research is very
significant to the industry players and stakeholder to strategize their marketing in order to
attract more tourist arrival.
Keywords: destination image, cognitive image, tourist satisfaction

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1. INTRODUCTION

Theme parks recently has become the star players in the tourism industry, as they have a
significant influence in generating tourism demand (Cheng, Guo & Ling, 2013). At the
same time, destinations image also can be considered as one of the factors that
contribute to the economy of the country (Basaran, 2016).

Currently, the popular tourism products in Malaysia are cultural, nature, medical, beach,
agriculture, island and the latest one is theme park tourism (Tourism Malaysia, 2012).
Destination image is important in building up the brand of the destination in tourism
industry because without image, travelers are not aware about the existence of that
destination (Ahmad et al, 2014).

The number of theme park destination in Malaysia has recently risen up because of the
image of the theme park that has been built. Previously, Malaysians who love adrenaline
activities such as roller coaster and pirate ship prefer to visit infamous Universal Studio in
Singapore since it was the nearest theme park destination from Malaysia (Jalil & Alias,
2014). However, since Sunway Lagoon Waterpark, Berjaya Times Square and other theme
parks in Malaysia have been built, it helped in promoting Malaysia as one of the local
theme park destination (Domenech, 2011). Destination image is important to enhance their
images in order to increase tourism receipts, income, employment and government
revenue among other contributions of international tourism (Ramseook et al, 2015).

Along with that, it reflects with this study aim which is to identify and provide in- depth
understanding of destination image which the researcher focused towards cognitive image
of theme park. This is because past studies had to redefine the image of travel destination
is reconstructive and taking into account many factors (Walmsley and Jenkins, 1993).

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Creating a different destination image is important because it can be vital to survive in
a globally competitive marketplace where other attractive destination also began to
compete intensely (Qu, Kim & Im, 2011). Apart from that, tourists demand and
preferences might changes from time to time which leads to tourism providers need to
adopt the new strategies towards their theme park destination.

2.1 Theme Park

Theme parks have been defined as a star in the tourism industry as this tourism attraction
have a special significant that able to influence in boosting the tourism demand.Raluca
and Gina (2012) mentioned that attraction in a theme park is one of the component in
tourism industry to be developed as tourism product. This is also agreed by Dong and Sui
(2012) that attractions at the theme parks helps to increase the number of visitors, since
tourist demand for new and diverse vacation experience, and at the same time theme parks
offered the good service quality.

Domenech (2011) saw the potential of theme parks in Malaysia to grow successfully
alongside with other theme parks destination in the world. This is because theme parks
have become the top choices among tourists as a motivation to travel. Tourist chooses

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Malaysia as their theme park destination because Malaysia is an ideal destination to have
enjoyable travel as this country is fortunate to have good environment, suitable climate and
weather (Albattat et al, 2015).Theme park in Malaysia able to consistently be a chosen as
tourism destination because of the improvement of infrastructure and mode of
transportation in Malaysia (Ahamad et al, 2014).

This study is related to the development of theme parks and focus on the effect of
cognitive image in tourist satisfaction. The chosen theme park used by the researcher in
this study based on the certification and brand image of the theme park in Malaysia.

2.2 Destination Image

Destination image constantly become one of the popular tourism research topics
among tourism researcher (King, Chen & Funk, 2015). A definition of destination image
was defined as a set of preferences, ideas, and impressions made by the people who
have visited a destination or a place (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999).

Cai (2002) also agreed that images can be a reflection of the perception from tourist
regarding a destination that tourist has the interest to visit. Originally, the concept of
destination image was developed by Gartner (1999) and this researcher also suggested
that destination image should consist of three elements which are cognitive, affective and
conative. However, this study focus only on cognitive image among theme parks.

In the destination image context, many researchers found from the research that the
effect of internet towards individual perceptions and choices. There are three contexts
that have been found which are concept towards tourist management (Chen & Hsu,
2000 & Kozak, 2001, 2002), main principal of the value for the brand (Konechik &
Gartner, 2007), and lastly the focus and an important element in establishing a brand
image for the destination (Cai, 2002).

There were different opinions regarding the attributes of the destination image. One of
them was Echtner and Ritchie (2003) which suggest that the attributes for destination
image can be from psychological and functional. Meanwhile, other scholars also suggest
that destination image attributes can be divided into two which are cognitive and
affective attributes (Qu, Kim & Im, 2011).

In terms of theme park context, destination image is important for theme parks because
it is a key element to attract the tourist to the extent that from the image perceptions of
individuals about the destination helps to determine their future behavior and choices of
the destination (O’ Lesary & Deegan, 2003).

2.4 Cognitive Image

Cognitive image is one of the components in destination image despite affective image
and conative image. Cognitive image means beliefs a person has of the characteristics
or attributes of a tourist’s destination (Baloglu, 1999; Pike & Ryan, 2004). According to
the Walmsley and Young (1998), cognitive image is good to identify because cognitive
image is easier to describe and measure rather than affective and conative image.

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Besides cognitive, destination image also has another element which is affective.
However, Xie and Lee (2013) stated that cognitive image is worth to do research because
by using cognitive image perspective, it can help in providing accurate and concrete
information regarding the chosen destination. Apart from that, they also agreed with
other scholars that the analysis of cognitive image can be done through various attributes
and items. The latest review towards travel literature focuses on cognitive components of
the destination image through multiple attributes.

Some of the scholars also used cognitive image from the marketing context. Syed Alwi
and Kitchen (2014) mentioned in their study that cognitive image will lead the process
before changing it into an emotional or aftereffect reaction. In other words, this can
lead to overall perception and behavior intention ad actual action (Xie & Lee, 2014).
Meanwhile, Grimm (2005) identified that cognitive image items gave more impacts to
the brand choices among consumers.

2.5 Destination Attractiveness

According to Herrington et al (2013), destination attractiveness can be defined as one of
the important characteristics for individuals and to perceive the ability of the destination
to meet the tourist demands. Similarly, Hu and Ritchie (1993) agreed destination
attractiveness be a tool to measure tourist satisfaction from the tourist preferences,
knowledge and behavior towards the destination.

Furthermore, destination attractiveness is the center in the tourism industry (Ahmad et
al, 2014). Vengsayi (2003) stated that the more characteristics a particular destination
able to meet the demand and needs of the tourist, the more it is perceived to the
attractive and the more possibility for that destination to be chosen by the tourists as
their travel destination. Besides, Merrilees and Wilkins (2013) also identified destination
attractiveness from marketing perspectives. They stated that destination attractiveness
items not used to identify the demands from the consumer but it is used to figure out about
the length of visitors visit to the theme park.

2.6 Price

Alongside with destination attractiveness, price also has been proven to be important
characteristics that tourists looked on in choosing a destination. According to Domenech
(2011) price may look like that it is not an important elements for tourist nowadays when
selecting a destination to travel since many people have the ability to travel. Domenech
added more that price can be put as a secondary characteristics because the tourists identiy
whether the destination offer a good service and activities after they experienced it.
However, Zhou (2005) did not agreed with that statement and said that price is one of the
key characteristics that tourists concern about when choosing a holiday destination.

2.7 Entertainment

Theme parks known as a destination that provides a wide range of indoor and outdoor
activities and entertainment. Tourists who visit the theme parks means they want to have

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fun and enjoy their visit. Theme parks offer a variety of entertainment such but the most
popular entertainment is the ride. This is because ride offered experience which make the
tourists feel thrilled and excited to visit the theme park (Ahmad et al, 2014). Meanwhile,
Domenech (2011) also agreed that thrill ride is one of the main activities in the theme park
which needs to be included under theme park attributes.

2.8 Accessibility

Duration to-and-from theme park is among that is worth identifying among tourists when
choosing a destination. This is because a pleasant journey by any mode and means
transportation can influence the overall satisfaction level among tourists. Accessibility may
influence the other factor as well which included in the destination attributes. One of the
findings from Mohamad, Abdullah and Mokhalis (2012) proved that accessibility and
journey is the main priority in making the planning for a holiday destination.

2.9 Facilities

Facilities and service work in the same manner to balance the core products. Providing
facilities to the human being can be a challenging duty because each person has their own
preferences, demand and behaviour. However, each management of the theme park
should be able to provide standard facilities such as accommodation, food services, and
transportation which is essential in the theme park. Sangchoul (2012) has made a research
regarding this study and proved that facilities are crucial items in enhancing the experience.
This is also supported by Yahya (2000) that said tourism destination could not stand alone
without the existence of facilities because it can be said that facilities are vital for the theme
park in determining the level of satisfaction among tourists.

2.10 Services

Service can relate to customer satisfaction and it is one of the complement to the core
products in theme park. If the technology in the theme park managed to provide the fun
experience, services offered by the operator can directly give pleasant feeling (Ahmad et
al, 2014). Emphasize in service will create a great memory because of the close interaction
that it provides to the visitor. Low quality of service might influence the image of the theme
park or destination itself as well as the intention for the revisit as proved by Haah and Yavas
(2004).

2.11 Tourist Satisfaction

Making a customer satisfied with the service provided by the operator is the ultimate
objective in the tourism industry especially among theme park destination. Kim et al (2003)
defined tourist satisfaction as an existing post-purchase behaviour through a mental
comparison of the product and the expectation from the service quality as an exchange
between tourist and the operator. According to the other scholar which are Orel and Kara
(2014), they stated that the term of customer satisfaction from the service context, it refers
to the preferred result of “service experience that involves an evaluation of whether the
service is able to meet the customer's perceptions and fulfill the needs”.

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Therefore, Nyadzayo and Khajehzadeh (2016) said tourist satisfaction basically related to
the after effect customer during the post evaluations when doing a decision making
regarding the destination or brand based on the characteristics. Geng-Qing and Qu (2008)
said that destination image is an antecedent of satisfaction and satisfaction has a positive
influence on revisit behaviour from tourist. Coban (2012) also agreed that tourist
satisfaction can be used as a measurement tool to evaluate the performance of the specific
destination or service and at the same time have an ability to identify and work as solution
items if there is any discontentedness.

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The primary data was collected online using the influence of media social since this study
mostly expected the most respondent were among tourists who visit and experience the
theme park. The data was set through observations and questionnaires instruments. A
descriptive research design using a quantitative approach through sectional study. This
approach has been chosen to ensure that the research would be based on the tourist who
has been visited the chosen theme park in the questionnaire.

3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY

The research population comprised of all visitors who have been to any theme parks that
are stated in the questionnaire. The theme parks that have chosen by a researcher are
theme parks that are located in Selangor. The target sample focused on the group of
tourists that have visited a theme park in Selangor area mostly either they are locals or
international tourists. The respondents were among 25.83 million tourist arrival in 2018.

3.3 SAMPLE OF SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

Sample size has been described as the target group to collect the data and any information
related to this study. The research identified the essential number in order to fulfil the
questionnaires based on the tourist arrival in Malaysia. Based on tourism Malaysia, the
tourists arrival for 2018 reported 25.83 million compare to the 2017 which was 25.95
million (Tourism Malaysia, 2019). This tourist arrival was the target respondents that asked
by a researcher to answer the survey related to this study.

A researcher decided to choose sampling convenience because a researcher distributed
this survey randomly through social media such as Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook. It is
wider and easy because a researcher does not need to visit the site and meet the
respondents through face to face.

3.4 INSTRUMENTS FOR DATA COLLECTION

The survey distributed in the Google form questionnaire which made the questionnaire
distributed fast. The questionnaire has two sections which are section A and section B.
Section A of the questionnaire dealt with Demographic data such as gender, age,
occupational level, nationality and education level. At the same time in the demographic
data, a researcher also include four chosen theme parks in Kuala Lumpur which were

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Sunway Lagoon Theme Park, Berjaya Times Square Indoor Theme Park, District 21th, and
Genting Highland.

Apart from that, under section B the questionnaire emphasizes on the items in the
framework study. The item relates with the study which was cognitive image attributes.
These items were able to measure the level of satisfaction among tourists towards the
theme parks that the respondent stated in Section A.

The method used for respondent to answer this questionnaire is by using Likert Scale
where the respondent needs to give a scale from one until five. Scale 1 respond to
strongly disagree, scale 2 respond to disagree, scale 3 respond to average, scale 4 respond
to agree and lastly scale 5 respond to strongly agree.

The questionnaire was adopted from the two previous articles which were Destination
attractiveness of theme park: A case study in Malaysia by Ahmad et al (2014) and
Determining Visitors’ Repetition by Using Servqual Dimensions in Attraction Parks: A case
from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Albattat and Romli (2017)

4. MAIN RESULTS

4.1 Demographics

Table 1. Example of table for the extended abstract

Items Characteristics Percentage
1. Gender Female 71.4

2. Nationality Male 27.6
3. Race
4. Age Malaysian 91.8

5. Education level Non-Malaysian 7.1

Malay 87.8
Chinese 5.1

Indian 2.0
Others 4.1

15-19 13.3
20-24 51.0
25-29 21.4
30-39 8.2
40-49 4.1
50-55 1.0
SPM/STPM 17.3
Matriculation 2.0
Diploma 10.2
Degree 63.3
Master and above 6.1

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6. Employment status Employed 32.7
7. Theme park Student 60.2
Retired
8. With who visited Non-employed 0
the theme park Sunway Lagoon Theme Park, Kuala 6.1
Lumpur 15.3
Lost World of Tambun, Perak
Berjaya Times Square Indoor Theme 17.3
Park, Kuala Lumpur. 22.4
Gambang Water Theme Park, Pahang.
Escape Park, Penang. 15.3
Genting Highland Theme Park, 11.2
Pahang. 17.3

Alone 1.0

Adult couple 5.1
49.0
Family 36.7
Friends 7.1
Clubs, associations and etc 29.6

9. Sources of Word of mouth 28.6
knowledge 0
Internet
Staff member 40.8
advertising

Based on the result of the survey conducted by a researcher, it showed positive feedbacks
regarding the demographics. From the results, it can be seen that these theme parks got
the attention of the Malaysian people and at the same time from the tourist at the same
time. Among respondents, most of them were youth travelers who have an interest in
adrenaline activities in theme parks. These six theme parks have chosen by a researcher
because of the recognition and brand award they got along their establishment. Berjaya
Times Square Indoor Theme Park, Kuala Lumpur became the top choice from the
respondents. The marketing at each theme park showed that online advertising such as
social media, television and others managed to increase the number of tourists to the
theme park destination. This is because most of the respondents knew about the theme
park destinations from the advertising method.

4.2. Cognitive Image

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Items Characteristics Percentage
Destination A good reputation of this theme park 43.9 (strongly
attractiveness make me want to visit agree)

Price The design of this theme park 41.8 (strongly
influenced me to visit this theme agree)
Entertainment park 49.0 (agree)
46.9 (agree)
Accessibility This theme park was visually
Facilities appealing 41.8 (agree)
41.2 (agree)
Services The environment in the theme park
make tourist feel comfortable and 40.8 (agree)
enjoyable.
40.8 (agree)
Visited this theme park was worth 55.1 (agree)
the price 45.9 (agree)
41.8 (agree)
This theme park offered an 44.9 (agree)
experienced worth with the price
than other theme park.

The packages offered in this theme
park was affordable with the
activities provided.

The activities offered in this theme
park was fun and interesting

The events organized by the theme
park was enjoyable and satisfy
The activities in this theme park
attracted me to visit
Various activities provided for their
visitor in this theme park
Easy to reach

This theme park was close with 45.9 (agree)
accommodation 49.0 (agree)
The condition of the road was good

Parking lots provided by the 50.0 (agree)
management were convenience
and systematic 44.9 (agree)
This theme park provided good 45.9 (agree)
food and beverages facilities
The restroom condition was good

The facilities prepared by the 61.2 (agree)
management of theme park was in
good usable condition 52.0 (agree)
Useful directional signage at the 52.0 (agree7) 6
theme park.
Employee have a neat and
professional appearance

Tourist satisfaction The attitude of employees shows 55.1 (agree)
their willingness to help me 51.0 (agree)
51.0 (agree)
The staff in the theme park showed 48.0 (agree)
friendly attitude to their tourist 46.9 (agree)
Overall service in this theme park 54.1 (agree)
was good 51.0 (agree)
I am satisfy with the information on
the website and it was useful
Responsive and helpful staff

Overall I am satisfied with this
theme park
I satisfied with the services and
facilities provided by the
management of the theme park

The items used for this study was implemented from the previous studies which are
Destination attractiveness of theme park: A case study in Malaysia by Ahmad et al
(2014) and Determining Visitors’ Repetition by Using Servqual Dimensions in Attraction
Parks: A case from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Albattat and Romli (2017). The results
showed the feedbacks regarding the chosen theme parks in Malaysia. The respondents
agreed that a theme park they chose has destination attractiveness characteristics
which were the visual of the theme park itself. This is because all the

items respondents chose theme park was visually appealing. Other than that, other
items for dependent variables also showed positive feedback from the respondents.
This means that theme park destination in Malaysia able to satisfy the needs of the
tourist who interested in theme parks activities.

Meanwhile, the respondents agreed that facilities can affect the level of tourist
satisfaction in the theme park they visit. From all the variables one of the items in the
facility variables, the respondents who agreed that the facilities prepared by the
management of the theme park were in good usable condition.

5. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the condition of the facilities in the theme park played an important role in
measured the level of tourist satisfaction. More good condition of the facilities, the level
of tourist satisfaction with the theme park and management increase. In order to make
the theme park destination in Malaysia boost the marketing and visual of the theme park
is important to maintain the theme park. Even there were many theme parks were being
built these few years but for the management sides, they need to make sure the
facilities, visual, activities and the infrastructures in the theme park in good usable
condition and the safety of the tourist can be secure.

Theme parks destinations in Malaysia able to compete with other theme parks eith7e7r
international or national brands because the destinations also have many activities and

entertainment that have high class and able to fulfill what the tourist demand from the
theme parks. Even theme parks tourism not as popular as other types of tourism but the
Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia can make that as one of the new types of tourism in
Malaysia. This can be a big opportunity for Malaysia to enlist as one of the theme park
destinations among international theme parks destinations.

Theme park destinations who are known and become top choice among the tourist are
USS, Disneyland, and particularly in Malaysia are Sunway Lagoon and Berjaya Times
Square. These brands of theme parks always are the top choice among youth travelers and
family travelers. This is because there were many activities and entertainment offers
interesting and have good marketing to attract their target market.

Sustaining the theme park destinations are important for tourism in Malaysia to help
increase the revenue of the economy in Malaysia from the tourism industry. Visual,
entertainment and facilities are important elements that need to give attention to the
management of the theme park destinations that want to sustain and compete with
international theme park destinations.

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Llodrà-Riera, I., Martínez-Ruiz, M. P., Jiménez-Zarco, A. I., & Izquierdo-Yusta, A.
(2015). A multidimensional analysis of the information sources construct and its
relevance for destination image formation. Tourism Management, 48, 319-328.

Martins, M. (2015). The tourist Imagery, the Destination Image and the Brand Image.
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destination image and the role of psychological factors in its formation. Tourism
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Papadimitriou, D., Kaplanidou, K. & Apostolopoulou, A. (2015). Destination Image
Components and Word-of-Mouth Intentions in Urban Tourism: A Multigroup
Approach. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(4), 503-527.

Seo, S., Yun, N., & Kim, O. Y. (2014). Destination food image and intention to eat
destination foods: A view from Korea. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(2), 135-156.

Torres, E. N., Milman, A., & Park, S. (2018). Delighted or outraged? Uncovering key
drivers of exceedingly positive and negative theme park guest experiences.
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drivers of exceedingly positive and negative theme park guest experiences.
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B. (2019, February 27). Tourism contributed RM84.1bil in 2018. Retrieved from

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rm841bil-2018
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sector- needs-boost-promotion-2019-budget

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Proceedings of the 3rd International Language & Tourism Conference 2019
Sustaining Global Development Goals through
Language, Education and Tourism

Kulliyyah of Languages and Management, International Islamic University
Malaysia, Pagoh Edu Hub, Malaysia 18th-19th October 2019

E-TOURISM MAP: AN INTERACTIVE TOURISM WEB MAPPING SYSTEM
AND MOBILE APPS IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Muhammad Nurrahim Ruslan*1, Abdul Rauf Abdul Rasam2
and Noraain Mohamed Saraf3

1Centre of Studies for Surveying Science and Geomatics, Faculty of Architecture Planning and
Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

(E-mail: *[email protected], *[email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Tourism is one of the main sectors that have hugely contributed in Selangor’s economy by
generating incomes from local tourist and foreign tourists who come to Selangor for
vacations. The rapid growth of digital technology has been affecting tourism sector that
tourists can easily gain information about the tourist attraction places via computer or
smartphone. Surveying science and geomatics is not only restricted to the land surveying
works. Therefore, this study is conducted to implement the knowledge and techniques from
GIS and cartography to develop an electronic atlas system that consists of the tourism
information (e-tourism) of Selangor. By using this geomatic-based tourism information
system, the users can help to increase integrity and accuracy of the data especially the
locations of the attraction places in the state. This proposed system can also support usage
on Windows operating system for computer or laptops platform and Android operating
system that compatible for smartphone. The system has navigation functions that will assist
users to navigate their ways to intended locations. Besides that, it provides useful tourism
information such as general information of the place, operational hour, entrance fee and
gallery of pictures. Multimedia elements are also included in this e-map such as audio,
graphics, animation and video in order to attract the attentions of tourists. The selected
respondents have satisfied with the functions developed in this digital cartographic product
for user practicality and implementation.
Keywords: E-Tourism; Interactive Map; Mobile App; Web GIS

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1. INTRODUCTION

Tourism is one of the main sectors that have hugely contributed to generate the income
for Malaysia economic. Bernama (2017) reported tourism is the third biggest contributor
to the country’s income after manufacturing and palm oil. According to a report released
by the Department of Statistics Malaysia stated that value added of tourism industry value
at RM166.0 billion increased by 10.3 percent per year in starting from 2010 until 2015 (Ho,
2016). Those numbers represent that tourism sector is playing a very important roles in
term of the Malaysia economic sustainability.

Geographical information system (GIS) and multimedia computerized technology are
rapidly developed in the world today. These has been utilized in many sectors and
industry to improve management and decision-making process. GIS technology has the
capability to combine the geographical data with other types of data. This can help to
develop a tourism information system to provide the information that consist of various
types of data as seen in the tourism websites such as Tourism Malaysia that contains the
data such as picture, textual description and other elements of ICT and multimedia.

In the context of Selangor, in order to make it is becoming more tourist friendly spot, the
first step is to provide the comprehensive information for tourist in the state. There are
several web-based systems available online which are provide the information and
promote the local tourism sector such as Tourism Malaysia and Tourism Selangor
websites. However, based on the desk studies and questionnaires given to public
respondents, it is found that there are several weaknesses on the existing systems. The
existing websites are lack on the mapping or spatial information. Other than that, the
tourism map display on the website is not integrated which makes it difficult for users to
access the information. In order to create an attractive and interesting website that also
provide the information about tourism places and activities, a well develop design with
attractive maps is very important to be developed using elements of cartography that helps
to deliver information about the tourism via electronic maps.

According to International Cartographic Association (1995), cartography is defined as
discipline dealing with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps.
Cartography also is the knowledge of making maps and make it presentable in various ways.
Now, many searches on the internet involve Geo-spatial information through Web GIS.
According to Chang et al. (2011), the relationship between perceptions and utilization
behaviour, the factors of ‘usefulness’ and ‘playfulness’ play major parts in setting the
usages and interactions with Web GIS respectively. This statement shows that it is
important to create web-based tourism information so that the users can interact
(playfulness) yet full of information that can helps tourist in their journeys (usefulness).

Koceski et al. (2012) attempted to justify the necessity of designing web-based portal in
order to helps tourist and travellers to do research about their holiday. Electronic- tourism
(e-tourism) is a future of the tourism industry. Nowadays, people can search and gain
many information via web platform. By developing an e-tourism information system, it
can increase the reachability to share information towards increasing the numbers of

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potential tourists whether Malaysian or international tourist.

Other than that, e-tourism is embracing the multimedia concept where it can help to
promote the tourism attraction in more attractive ways. Thus, this project develops an e-
tourism web-based system for tourists who want to come visiting Selangor. This study
helpfully can help tourist to become more interest in what Selangor can offer in terms of
tourism sector by fulfilling the following objectives:

i. to study the existing system and user requirement on the proposed system of e-
tourism.
ii. to design and develop the e-tourism system according to the user requirement.
iii. to test and evaluate the performance of the e-tourism system design and
functionality.

2. REVIEW ON WEB GIS ROLES IN E-TOURISM CARTOGRAPHY

2.1 Tourism and Categories

According to World Tourism Organization (2011), tourism is defined as the activities of
persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more
than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the
exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.

Based on this definition, tourism only can be defined when that persons travel or the
displacement that happens outside of his or her usual environment. Other that, as refers
to the definition, tourism is not only about doing leisure activities such as sight- seeing of
places or shopping, but tourism also includes the business trip activities such as meetings
with clients or attending job-related seminars which happens outside of our usual
environment.

Because of that, it is important to obtain a basic knowledge about the types of tourism
that exist worldwide. There is three different main types of tourism which are domestic
tourism, inbound tourism and outbound tourism (Almeria, 2008). Domestic tourism is
when persons taking holidays and trips in that person’s own country. As example of
domestic tourism for Malaysian is when a family from Sabah come to Selangor for
holidays in school’s midterm break period.

Meanwhile, inbound tourism is a tourism that happens when visitors from overseas
coming into the country. For example, a tourist coming from Japan come to Malaysia.
Moreover, outbound tourism is when we travelling to a different country for a visit or a
holiday. For example, you are an outbound tourist from the Malaysia if you go to Singapore
on holiday.

This study is focused on tourism activities or types of tourism that available in Selangor
mainly or Malaysia generally. Because of that, the official website of Tourism Malaysia is
referred to gain information about the types of tourism in Malaysia. In that website, there
is an article entitled types of tourism in Malaysia that listing five types of tourism in this

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country which are cultural tourism, adventure tourism, medical tourism, beach tourism,
sport tourism and agricultural tourism.

2.2 E-Tourism, Cartography and Web GIS

Buhalis (2003) stated that a digitalization is all the process and values chains
in the tourism, hospitality, travel and catering industries that enable organizations to
maximize their effectiveness and efficiency. E-Tourism is closely related to the
advancement of technology in information and communication technology (ICT). With the
development of a new technology, it also brings changes to the tourism industry. This
especially affected on the way that tourism sectors are manage and promote and led to
the new information economy that based on the digital as its nature. Thus, this study is
relevance and hope to help promoting tourism in Selangor so that the information can
reach more people by applying ICT, Cartographic techniques and GIS.

Cartography is also applied due to its spatial thinking and knowledge of making maps and
these make it presentable in various ways to get better understandings of the theories,
principles and techniques of map design and production. The influence of the interactive
map in cartography is important since having additional functions such as zooming and
pan around the maps. It can also provide users with the tourism information that have
advance visual form and geographic references. GIS and interactive maps are a popular
way to visualize and display tourism-related information online (Young et al., 2011),
especially for planning user trips (Dickmann, 2005).

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a computer system that integrates between
hardware, software and data to support data acquisition, management, manipulation,
analysis, modelling and display of geospatial data. GIS has been used to study the
relationship or pattern of certain phenomenon and display it in the form of maps, charts
and reports. Because of that GIS is the best tool in order to manage the tourism information
and tourism promotion taks. This is because by using GIS we can study the relationship
between tourist attractions places and number of visitors also tourist’s travelling pattern.

Koceski et al. (2012) attempts to justify the necessity of designing web-based portal in
order to helps tourist and travellers to do research about their holiday. GIS in tourism can
be divided into two type of users which are management user and public user.
Management user of tourism using GIS for planning about the tourist attraction,
development of facilities, and marketing related to the tourism. This is because GIS
provides the operational advantages in term of data collection and analysis. Meanwhile,
public user of GIS in tourism is to find geographic information of any destination or region
for tourism tour and the available facilities.

Electronic-tourism information system is more beneficial if compared to conventional
method. This is because it can reach wider range of potential tourist whether towards
local tourist or foreign tourist. E-tourism is a tourist information platform for travellers to
obtain information about the tourism attraction places by using the internet. Other than
it can reach more potential tourists, this system also are relatively low costs.

Tongdhamachart et al. (2013) said that by utilizing e-tourism it is beneficial for the Baan
Pihuchang community that can provide an easy access to information on tourism services,

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better information on tourism services, and convenience for customers. Media campaigns
using TV commercials to gain the attention of a large number of people needs strong
support from local government offices as well as financial budgets; but e-tourism can be
easily accomplished such as social network like Websites, Facebook, Twitter or You Tube
to market their uniqueness and identity stronger with the ASEAN community. Thus, e-
tourism can overcome the barrier of information’s deliveries and is more economical or
save in term of cost. The information not only can be reach by local people, but it can be
access by people from others country. Moreover, it will increase the number of potential
tourists that will attract and want to come visit Selangor for the tourism by using digital
platform such as social media and web-based portal that are more accessible.
Based on another benefit, Koceski et al., (2012) emphasised on the applications of web-
based tourism system that can assists all interested parties in planning their travel on
more intelligent way by generating a personalized list of favourable and tailor-made items.
Since these portal assists tourists and travellers in identification of their ideal holiday place,
it contributes to improvement of tourism promotion in more qualitative manner.

Tourism information that highlights the GIS techniques helps to provide spatial
information about the place that is very close to reality. Thus, it can help users of the web-
based information system to analysis and make a better decision making. In general, this
web GIS based application can assist the prospective domestic and foreign tourists to the
city in advance planning of their tour in time and with greater spatial details at their
disposal (Lalit et al., 2008).

3. METHODOLOGY

GIS, Cartography and Adobe Animate are main tools used to develop an e-tourism
information system in Selangor, including cartographic principles of map making, data
collection, data processing and system development. For system design and
development, waterfall model is chosen as the main System Development Life Cycle in
the study. It is a standard process that help to organize all the steps involve in the system
development works. Figure 1 shows four main stages that involves in the system
development life cycle. Each phase falls into the next phase. The next phase should not
start until the current phase is completed.

Figure 1: Phases of Waterfall Model in System Development Life Cycle.

Analysis is an early stage of a development works of a system. For this study, preliminary
investigation has been done by investigating the existing system to study it strength and

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weakness. Other than that, user requirement will help to understand the user’s need on
the proposed system.

Phase two which is design that starts only after the first stage of analysis has been done.
The design works are involving two main components which are GIS and cartographic
elements in order to produce an e-atlas tourism information system as shown in Figure
2. This navigation design is crucial to develop the interactive system that efficient and
can navigate through all the functions and contents on the web. It shows the navigation
function through the web which start with Home interface and links with other web
content such as tourist attraction places, tourism activities, and the location guide by
using tourism map and google map.

Figure 2: Navigation design of the web.
The third phase is implementation which all the development works has been done. This
stage can be started after the design stage works are finalized. The system that are
developed will apply in the design from the second stage. This involves the
documentation and coding works.to allow the screen events and system functionalities
are works. Map is then designed by using Adobe Illustrator CC software. Web-based
development is started with the multimedia authoring. Elements of multimedia such as
text, sound, image, video and animation are also created and organized on this web
development stage.

The last stage of this waterfall model is system testing and evaluation. Respondents are
asked to test this system and give their recommendations about this system. This is to
ensure the system can be run successfully. Any feedback or opinions from respondent
are recorded for further improvements of the proposed system.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 User Requirement on the Proposed System
In accordance to the project objective which are to study the user requirement on

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proposed system of e-tourism and to design and develop the system according to user
requirement. This system has been built by using a User-Centred Design approach where
questionnaires are distributed to identify the needs of users. A few questions have been
constructed to obtain information such as user’s personal information, their experienced
of using existing tourism information system, system evaluation and their expectation on
the proposed new system. the users of tourism website. Based on the user age analysis,
most of the tourism information system users are teenagers and young adults. 39.1% of
the users are in the range of 18 years old to 24 years old of age. It is then followed by the
age group of 25 to 34-year-old (23,9%), group of 25-34-year-old (17.4%), group of less than
18-year-old (13%) and group more than 45-year-old (6.6%).

Regarding on the user’s opinion about the existing tourism information system, 100% of
the respondents stated that they have been used the tourism information system or
websites. Bar chart in Figure 3 shows the common lists of available website name that
they have been used to get information about tourism. Most of the respondents stated
that they usually using blogs to obtain information about the tourism information.
Information on the blog are usually writing based on personal perspective of the bloggers.

However, majority respondents unsatisfied with existing system due to the systems they
have been used are lack of information that they needed, and no directional information
prepared in the system. Based on the desk studies have been done, most of the websites
only show prices and customer reviews of that places. However, most of the respondents
felt that the speed of the system to be accessed is not a problem because nowadays the
internet speed has improved a lot especially in urban areas.

Figure 3: Existing websites used by the respondents.

Besides that, although 63% of the respondents said that the systems, they have been
used are quite user friendly, 65.2% agreed that the system is poor on the multimedia
elements and 21.7% said it is in very poor conditions. Moreover, the existing systems are
poor performance in terms of information completeness, map complexness and directional
information as displayed in Figure 4.

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Figure 4: User evaluation on existing systems.

Regards to geographical information system (GIS) and Cartography, the respondents have
been asked whether GIS Cartography is important component for tourism information
system, then all (100%) of the respondents gave a “Yes” answer where indicate that the
users are agree that tourism information system need to have a tourism map that consist
of good cartography elements. The users also said that multimedia elements including
graphic, sound and video are very important to be included in the proposed tourism
information system so that it will be more attractive and can represent the information in
graphical form instead just in textual form.

The users also have been asked about the proposed system functionality. Respondents
have been given opportunity to provide idea and the contents needed for the proposed
system that going to be developed. It shows the variety of contents that are users suggest
needed to be included in the new system. All the respondents wanted the new system to
have location map that shows the location of the tourism attraction places. There are five
tourist attraction places that are proposed by respondents that achieved more than 50% of
votes from users which are historical places, eco-tourism, healthcare facilities, flea market
and cultural and arts. 50% of the users give suggestion to include photos as the contents
on the propose tourism information system. Others suggested contents by the
respondents are as shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5: Users suggestion on the proposed system contents

In conclusion, for the result of the user requirement is important to design and develop
the proposed system of e-tourism map in Selangor. From this survey also found that users
are aware about the importance of GIS and cartography mapping as the main contents of
the tourism information system.

4.2 System Modules and Applications

Figure 6 shows the homepage of the e-tourism map and its main button functions. The
homepage provides a list of Main Menu of the system. It consists of main button functions
that will lead to the four main pages. These three buttons are important to enable users to
navigate with ease between contents sub-pages and the main pages. A Contact Us Button
for users to give their feedback about the system. The image on the middle of the
homepage shows the pictures of tourist attraction places by using tween motion that
produce animation screen event.

Figure 6: Homepage and main button functions of the e-tourism map.

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Figure 7 shows the main modules or buttons provided on the proposed system. Th
introduction module shows the overview information of Selangor Darul Ehsan that can
helps users especially foreign tourist to get an early introduction about the Selangor as a
state in Malaysia. The subpages that contains the information which includes Selangor,
Ahah Alam, state capital of Selangor, Selangor Monarchy, Geography, and Local Music.

Figure 7: The main modules or button pages provided in the proposed system
In Tourism Map Module page, it can be accessed by user by clicking on the Tourism Map
button. This module main page has six maps. As the title of this thesis project which
includes the word of cartography, this information system has provided numbers of
electronic maps which divided into six tourism categories, including Culture and Arts, Flea
Market, Historical Places, Fishing Spot, Hiking Spot, and Healthcare Facilities.
Each of the maps are created by using ArcMap, then edited in Adobe Illustrator and
Photoshop and finally are imported into Adobe Animate as the contents in this proposed
system. These maps enlarge when mouse pointer is over it, and users can click the map to
lead to next page.
Another main button is Interesting Place Module page that can be accessed by clicking on
the Interesting Places button. This module main page shows total of nine districts of
Selangor in a map. This module has several differences compared to the Tourism Map
module. In the Tourism Map module, the tourism attraction places in Selangor is
categorized by six different tourism categories. Meanwhile for this Interesting Place
module combines all the six tourism categories with 30 places in one map.

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