Tourism signatures and moderating effect of by-products in building Sarawak state destination image - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 202

of tourists because of its culture and architectural
sights, but the unique local crafts without excep-
tion contribute the image of the city. Yüksel and
Akgül (2007) noted local by-products also create
the image of Turkey; Ali-Knight (2011) in fact pos-
ited that other local byproducts in addition to the
core tourism products could moderate the image
of a particular country or destination.

adventure resources and natural resources, while
intangible elements refers to related hospitality,
services, local peoples as well as local by-products.
The following sections look at specific attributes of
the core or signature tourism products like culture,
adventure and nature.

2.2 Culture
Culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, ideas, behav-
iors, values and a way of life shared by a group
of peoples which is passed from one generation to
another generation. The importance of culture as
one of the major assets in tourism development has
been highlighted in the literature (Beeton, 2005). In
fact, culture and tourism have a strong relationship
which can strengthen the attractiveness of the des-
tinations and this is popularly known as cultural
tourism.
Anholt (2006) postulated that cultural tourism
as a tourist travelling to a destination for experi-
encing and learns about the local traditions, arts,
folk lore, the pilgrimage, historic sites and monu-
ments without violating the respecting of the local
community and the surrounding environment.
Beeton (2005) noted that cultural tourism besides
other products of tourism is the most powerful
factor to draw tourists to visit a particular destina-
tion. MacKay and Fesenmaier (2000) on the hand,
emphasized that most of the tourism destination
image is represented by its culture and the culture
in a particular destination like Bali clearly attract-
ing a substantial number of international tourists.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Signature tourism products
There are numerous ways to define signature or
tourism core products. Out of many, Kotler (2001)
postulate that tourism signature products as an
object that consist of one or a mix of components
including physical goods, services, information,
ideas, places, experiences, events, persons, proper-
ties and organizations in which these components
can create the whole satisfaction of tourists during
their visit to a destination. Brass (1997) divided the
components of signature tourism products into
two main attributes namely attractions and facili-
ties. Attractions are including natural and human-
made features while facilities closely related to
accommodation, roads, airports, hospitals, railway,
parking areas, water, power services and many oth-
ers. Both components (attractions and facilities)
together create a set of intangible “subjective expe-
riences” for tourists.
Other scholars categorized tourism products
into four levels namely the signature or core prod-
ucts, the facilitating products, the supporting
products and augmented products (Kotler, Bowen
& Makens, 1996; Swarbrooke & Page, 1995). The
core or signature products are major products or
main attraction being offered by a destination to
tourists. This type of products includes natural
resources, scenery, climate, culture, ecology and
historical architecture or manmade features. Facil-
itating products refer to related services and goods
that must be together with the core product. The
supporting product, or known as extra products
or by-products are the added value products to
the core products being offered by a destination to
help distinguish it from other destination. These
products are stand-alone including traditional
and ethnic crafts, local souvenirs, miniature, food
products and merchandise. The last is augmented
products which refer to individual or tourists' per-
ception, attitudes, participation and interaction
with the service organizations.
Xu (2009) posited that tourism products can be
in the form of tangible and intangible elements or
combination of both. Tangible elements are the
physical plant that includes cultural resources,

2.3 Adventure
Millington, Locke and Locke (2001) refers adven-
ture as risky outdoor activities that usually takes
place in a remote, unusual or wilderness area and
those activities cannot be separated from tourism
industry thus it is called an adventure tour. It is
undeniable that adventure tourism needed a guide,
experience and specialized equipment's to perform.
The activities involve elements of danger, risk, emo-
tion, exploration and discovery, challenge, escape
from reality, exciting and stimulating (Page, Bentley
& Walker, 2005). The adventure activities includes
caving, diving/snorkeling, cycle tours/mountain,
kayaking, touring, rock climbing, guided walks,
paragliding, safaris, horse riding, whitewater raft-
ing, off-road driving, mountain biking and expedi-
tions. As such, Romania is popular with adventure
tourism particularly on mountain biking activities.

2.4 Nature
According to Jafari (2000) nature consists of
plants, the landscapes, animals, and other products