AUTHORS: Ahmad Azmi M.Ariffin, Jabar Salah Mansour

Download as PDF

ABSTRACT: Cultural heritage tourism is essentially comprised of cultural tourism and heritage tourism. Authenticity of the attractions is unquestionably the most critical success factor for this niche tourism. While authenticity of the “built heritage” has been extensively studied, the authenticity of the presentation of the “local culture” seems to be ignored by past researchers. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of heritage authenticity, and cultural authenticity on behavioural intention in the context of cultural heritage tourism destination. This study also anticipates that the above relationships are mediated by the quality of experiences. This study involving 500 foreign tourists visiting the Malaysia’s first World Heritage City, Malacca City used questionnaire survey as the data collection method. The results show that only heritage authenticity is positively related to behavioural intention while cultural authenticity affects behavioural intention via experience quality. Heritage authenticity also shows insignificant relationship with experience quality.

KEYWORDS: - Heritage tourism, Cultural tourism, Heritage authenticity, Experience quality

REFERENCES:

[1] Ariffin, A.A.M. and Maghzi, A., A preliminary study on customer expectations of hotel hospitality: Influences of personal and hotel factors. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(1), 2012 pp.191-198.

[2] Bonn, M.A., Mathews, M.J, M., Hayes, S., & Cave, J., Heritage/cultural attraction atmospherics: Creating the right environment for the heritage/cultural visitor. Journal of Travel research, 45, 2007, pp.345-354.

[3] Parker, Q. Private sector must drive cultural tourism, The Bahama Journal, 2007, http://www.jonesbahamas.com, 6th Dec 2011.

[4] Hughes, M., & Carlsen, J., The business of cultural heritage tourism: Critical success factors. Curtin Sustainable Tourism Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 2010.

[5] Timothy, D.J. and Boyd, S.W., Heritage tourism in the 21st century: valued traditions and new perspectives. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 1(1), 2006, pp.1-16

[6] Garrod, B., & Fyall, A., Managing heritage tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3), 2000, pp.682-708.

[7] Chen, C. F., & Chen, F. S., Experience quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions for heritage tourists. Journal of Tourism Management, 31, 2010, pp.29-35

[8] Taylor J., Authenticity and sincerity in tourism, Annals of Tourism Research ,28, 2001, pp.7- 26.

[9] Chusakul, W., Authenticity in ethnic tourism performance analysis. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 10(5S) 2018.

[10] Chhabra, D., Defining authenticity and its determinants: toward an authenticity flow model. Journal of Travel Research, 44, 2005, pp.64–73.

[11] Moscardo, G., & Pearce, P.L., Understanding ethnic tourists. James Cook University, Australia. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2), 1999, pp.416- 434.

[12] Kolar, T., & Zabker, V., A consumer-based model of authenticity: An oxymoron or the foundation of cultural heritage marketing? Tourism Management, 31, 2010, pp.352-664.

[13] Wang N., Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research. 26(2), 1999, pp.349-70.

[14] Christou, E., Heritage and cultural tourism: A marketing-focused approach. In International Cultural Tourism, 2006, pp. 23-35.

[15] Palau-Saumell, R., Forgas-Coll, S., SánchezGarcía, J. and Prats-Planagumà, L., Tourist behavior intentions and the moderator effect of knowledge of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: The case of La Sagrada Família. Journal of Travel Research, 52(3), 2013, pp.364-376.

[16] Zhang, H., Cho, T., Wang, H. & Ge, Q., The influence of cross-cultural awareness and tourist experience on authenticity, tourist satisfaction and acculturation in world cultural heritage sites of Korea. Sustainability, 10(4), 2018. p.927.

[17] Askari, A.H., & Dola, K.B., Influence of building façade visual elements on its historical image: case of Kuala Lumpur City, Malaysia. Journal of Design and Built Environment. 5, 2009, pp.49-59.

[18] Goulding, C., The commodification of the past, postmodern pastiche, and the search for authentic experiences at contemporary heritage attractions. European Journal of Marketing, 34(7), 2000, pp.835-853.

[19] Cohen, E., Traditions on the Qualitative Sociology of Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 15, 1988, pp.29-46.

[20] Astrapellos, K., Costa, G., & Astrapellou, X., The quality of service experience in outdoor activities programs. International Journal of Sport Management Recreation & Tourism, 5, 2010, pp.77- 87.

[21] Alben, L., Quality of experience: Defining the criteria for effective interaction design. Interactions, 3, 1996, pp.11-15.

[22] Cole ST, Illum SF., Examining the mediating role of festival visitors’ satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and behavioural intentions. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 12(2), 2006, pp.160-73.

[23] Richins, C., The Influence of staged experiences on delightedness and behavioural intentions. Unpublished Master of Science’s thesis. 2011, University of Utah, USA.

[24] Fishbein M. & Ajzen, I., Belief, attitude, intention and behaviour: an introduction to theory and research. 1975, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

[25] Burns, R. C., Graefe, A. R., & Absher, J. D., Alternate measurement approaches to recreational customer satisfaction: Performance-only and importance performance gap scores. Leisure Sciences, 25, 2003, pp.363–380.

[26] Leung, D. & Dickinger, A. Retracted article: Does repetition help? Impact of destination promotion videos on perceived destination image and intention-to-visit change. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35(3), 2018. pp.i-xiv.

[27] Calder, B.J., Phillips, L.W. and Tybout, A.M., Designing research for application. Journal of consumer research, 8(2), 1981, pp.197-207.

[28] Roscoe, J.T., Fundamental Research Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences. 1975, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

[29] Baloglu, S., & Assante, L.M., A content analysis of subject areas and research methods used in five hospitality management journals. Journal of Hospitality Tourism Research, 23, 1999, pp.53–70.

[30] Ramkissoon, H. and Uysal, M., Testing the role of authenticity in cultural tourism consumption: A case of Mauritius. Tourism Analysis, 15(5), 2010, pp.571-583

[31] Otto, J. E., & Ritchie, J. R. B., The service experience in tourism. Tourism Management, 17(3), 1996, pp. 165–174.

[32] Calver, S.J. and Page, S.J., Enlightened hedonism: Exploring the relationship of service value, visitor knowledge and interest, to visitor enjoyment at heritage attractions. Tourism Management, 39, 2013, pp.23-36

[33] Zabkar, V., Brencic, M. M., & Dmitrovic, T., Modelling perceived quality, visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions at the destination level. Tourism management, 31(4), 2010, pp.537- 546.

[34] Anderson, J.C. and Gerbing, D.W., Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological bulletin, 103(3), 1988, pp.411.

[35] Tabachnick, B.G. and Fidell, L.S., Using Multivariate Statistics. (2nd ed). 1989, New York: Harper & Row Publishers.

[36] Nunnally, J. C., Psychometric Theory (2nd ed)., 1978, New York: Mc- Graw-Hill.

[37] Hair, J., Black, W., Anderson, R. & Tatham, R., Multivariate Data Analysis, 6 Ed., 2006, Person Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1109-9526 / 2224-2899, Volume 15, 2018, Art. #38, pp. 394-403


Copyright Β© 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0