Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tourism destination in Penang
Z.M. Rani, N. Othman & K.N. Ahmad
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: The recent growth in the heritage tourism has led to a renewed interest in the study of
revisit intention. Heritage tourism is one of the fastest-growing segments that can be classified as the
peculiar fraction in tourism industry. The popularity of heritage tourism escalates as the segment contin-
ues to provide diversity and variation of cultural and heritage elements that offer more authentic experi-
ence to the visitors. Cultural and heritage elements and activities often portrayed the authenticity of a
destination. As a nation, Malaysia is often cited as among the main destinations in Asia that flourishes
with culture and heritage elements. However, it is afraid that the heritage tourism product in Malaysia is
losing the touch of authenticity and originality due to mass tourism. This has led to major concern on
the sustainability of heritage tourism market. Significantly, the issue of authenticity and originality are
the foremost to determine the magnitude of the success of heritage tourism. Therefore, the study has
two main objectives: (1) to examine the relationship of perceived authenticity and satisfaction to revisit
Penang, (2) to analyze the role of satisfaction as mediation in the relationship of perceived authenticity
in revisiting Penang.
Keywords
:
Tourist behavior, perceived authenticity, heritage tourism, and heritage destination
1 INTRODUCTION
post-modernism in some cases, could bring the
downfall of heritage sites worldwide.
A conflict arises as heritage tourism is concern-
ing more on preservation while tourism focuses on
development. In consequence, the issue has grown
in importance in light of the need for preservation
of authenticity, which is essential because heritage
tourism is about experience, the core product of
which is identity. Hence, preceding literatures have
uncovered that the issue of authenticity and origi-
nality are the foremost notion to determine the
magnitude and success of heritage tourism.
Consequently, the study has two main objec-
tives: (1) to examine the relationship of perceived
authenticity and satisfaction to revisit Penang, (2)
to analyze the role of satisfaction as mediation in
the relationship of perceived authenticity in revis-
iting Penang.
The findings of this paper indicate a distinct rela-
tionship between tourist's perception of authentic-
ity and intention to revisit.
Tourism industry has become a more important
component to the country's economy and further
grant a number of advantages which in turn ben-
efits the country and residents in terms of mon-
etary and recognition (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins,
2013). In addition, tourism is known as one of the
major industry that contributes to the prolifera-
tion and growth of many developed and develop-
ing countries.
In the interim, the acceleration of the indus-
try globalization and increasing in demand from
mass tourist are among the major reasons of many
countries strive in establishing modern infrastruc-
tures such as hotels, tourist attractions, recreation
areas and other related infrastructures and facili-
ties in the direction to remain competitive within
the industry. Without doubt, the globalization and
development of tourism industry have acted as cat-
alysts for the growth of heritage tourism market.
According to Naef (2011), globalization helps
to safeguard the heritage from dilution or disap-
pearance of the identity as it has become a prod-
uct that attracts people to come to cherish and
learn (Mohamed, 2005). According to Mohamed
(2005), the post-modernism has brought up the
value of heritage. However, he added that the
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Perceived authenticity
Authenticity is among the severe issue in tour-
ism studies especially heritage (Zhou, Zhang &
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