Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rather than viewed separately, both food and
cultural aspects should be studied in parallel as
stated by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (2005,
para. 1) who quoted gastronome Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin: “Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell
you who you are”. Other than well-known for its
two bridges (13.5km and 24.0km, respectively)
and Komtar building, the Penang Island has a rich
resource both on food and culture. Against this
background, the main objective of this paper is to
find the role played by gender in influencing travel
motivations as well as the connection between
food, culture and tourism; if any.
Table 1. Income and tour package (food service)
relationship.
cultural distinctiveness and chances to attend cul-
tural performances. Previously mentioned, results
from three analyses (correlation, regression and
correspondence analysis) indicate that gender
plays an unimportant role in impacting the travel
motivations.
This paper runs a three-phase analysis where the
first analysis is to find the existence of a relation-
ship between variables (correlation analysis). Anal-
ysis between variables for each construct present
significant relationships where the lowest value
recorded by the Penang Island perceived cultural
image and historical uniqueness (.072) and the
highest value recorded by chances to attend cul-
tural performances and the historical uniqueness
(0.397), with both relationships (culture construct)
were significant at .01 level. In the context of food
construct, positive relationship is only recorded
by chances to experience the local cuisine and
the Penang Island perceived local cuisine image
(0.246, significant at .01 level). This paper further
learned that the tourists' tour package inclusive
food services propensity is unrelated to income (see
Table 1). Of interest, significant relationships were
also detected in the following relationships; [1] tour
package inclusive food services and the Penang
Island perceived cultural image (.170) and [2] the
Penang Island perceived local cuisine and cultural
images (.090), with both relationship significant at
.05 level.
The second analysis involves regression analysis
where this serves the purpose of studying the impact
of a variable on the remaining variables in addition
to finding a sturdier connection between variables
(due to the low significance level presented by the
correlation analysis). Differing from the first phase,
observation shows that only the food construct
presents the significant relationships. From results,
it is learned that the 'Penang Island perceived local
cuisine image' variable plays a major influence on
both 'tour package inclusive food services' and
'preferences of items bought' variables, where the
relationship is significant at .018. Interestingly, an
in-depth examination reveals that this relationship
can be further improved by paying less attention to
2 RESEARCH METHOD
This paper is motivated by the Malaysia Govern-
ment and the Penang State Government incen-
tives in promoting the Visit Penang campaign.
Prior to the actual data collection, a pilot study
was conducted in order to test the data collection
instrument reliability and validity. Results from
20 responses shows that the instrument is ready
to be used, with minor correction to its sections
paraphrasing as well as word replacement and
reduction to avoid ambiguity and confusion. Data
collection was done over a four-month timeframe
starting from August to November 2012, where the
self-administered survey targets the international
tourists with the minimum age of 18.
Out of 930 questionnaires handed out, 801
questionnaires were retrieved back, which was
amounting to 86 percent response rate. Out of
801 responses (Asia
363), it is
learned that 719 respondents have received terti-
ary education and 55.3 percent was contributed
by male respondents (amounting to 443 question-
naires), with 419 respondents aged between 18 and
54. This paper, however, did not impose the impor-
tance of male respondents over female respondents
(333 respondents aged between 18 and 54).
=
438, non-Asia
=
3 FINDINGS
This paper employs a number of analysis tech-
niques (cross-tabulation, correlation, regression
and correspondence analysis) in order to study the
relationship between gender and travel motivations
to the Penang Island (food and culture). In relation
to the food construct, the variables studied inclu-
sive tour package inclusive food services, the Pen-
ang Island perceived local cuisine image, chances
to experience the local cuisine and preferences of
items bought. In the context of the culture con-
struct, attention was given to the Penang Island
perceived cultural image, historical uniqueness,
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