Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.
Hiker demographic characteristics (
n
= 378).
Table 3.
Importance of motivation categories.
Level of Importance
Characteristics
Percentage (%)
Categories
Unimportant %
Neutral % Important %
Gender,
Male
Female
57.94
42.06
Nature
appreciation
13.5
1.3
85.2
Origin,
Malaysian
Singapore
Indonesia
Hong Kong
Australia
85.00
3.17
2.38
1.32
8.20
Solitude
7.4
0.5
92.1
Family
togetherness
46.5
51.0
2.5
Testing skills
29.5
18.0
52.5
Being
with others
32.4
62.2
5.4
Age,
18-20 years old
29.40
31.00
26.10
13.50
21-25 years old
26-30 years old
Above 30 years old
participation in hiking trips was less than 5 times
per year. A total of 63 percent of the respond-
ents (
n
240) indicated that they were part of an
organised group and hired mountain guides for
their hiking trip. Just 37 percent of the respondents
organised their trip on their own. A large majority
of the day hiking groups were composed of four
or fewer people (84.5%). A pair of hikers was the
most frequent hiking group size (46.3%), and the
rest were respondents hiking alone (14.2%). Most
respondents (62.7%) visited the G7 for two or three
days. Most hikers (55.9%) have previously made at
least one trip to one of the mountains of the G7.
While the rest reported that their current hike has
been their first hike at the G7.
Several questions were asked to understand the
motivation of the hikers. Respondents rated the
importance of twenty items that were grouped
into five categories (Backlund, Stewart, Schwartz
& McDonald, 2006). The items asked indicate the
importance of various types of experiences in moti-
vating a hike at the G7. The hikers were asked to
rate the items unimportant, neutral or important.
Similar to what has been reported by Backlund
et al. (2006), the majority of the respondents rated
nature appreciation and solitude as important to
them, 85.2 percent and 92.1 percent, respectively.
More than half of the respondents also rated test-
ing skills as important to them (52.5%). Finally,
family togetherness and being with others was
rated as either unimportant or neutral by almost
all respondents (see Table 3).
=
Table 2.
Hiker socio-economic characteristics.
Characteristics
Percentage (%)
Level of education,
n
351
High/Secondary School
Diploma
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
PhD
=
29.40
34.50
26.45
9.50
0.15
Annual household income,
n
=
320
Below RM50,000
Above RM50,000
53.50
46.50
characteristics, hiking experience, hiking behav-
iours, and motivations. All data were analysed
through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
software (SPSS) version 21.0.
4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From the survey, 396 responses were collected and
18 responses were discarded due to incomplete-
ness. Overall, 57.94 percent of the hikers were male
(see Table 1). The proportion of male and females
is con\sistent across the seven mountains. 85 per-
cent were reported as Malaysian, and 15 percent
were from Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and
Australia.
The largest group of respondents were those in
the age range of 21-25 at 31.0% (
n
117), followed
by respondents under 20 years old at 29.4 percent
(
n
=
5 CONCLUSIONS
111). A majority of the hikers (53.5%) reported
a total annual household income below RM50,000
(refer Table 2). This finding is in line with reported
majority who are below 25 years old.
For the majority of the hikers, their experi-
ence in the field was less than 5 years and their
=
These findings highlight that there is a broad diver-
sity among mountain hikers, ranging from begin-
ners to experienced enthusiasts. In spite of their
differences, many are looking for and finding simi-
lar experiences in similar environments and social
surroundings. For many hikers, finding unique
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