Brian Wong Kee Mun

Tourism industry is still blooming in the 21st century as it represents 9.2% of world GDP and 235 million people are employed within this industry (WTTC 2010). This indicates that tourism is one of the main economic sectors in the world. Tourism does not stand alone and it is highly integrated. Given the complex nature of tourism industry, it is vital to understand the system and structure of this industry, the tourists’ needs and behaviour. Tourism is defined as “the temporary movement to destination outside the normal home and workplace, the activities undertaken during the stay, and the facilities created to cater for the needs of tourists” (Mathieson and Wall 1982). Although there is no consensus on the definition of tourism among the researchers and lack of theories in tourism (Franklin and Crang 2001), the conceptualization of tourism as a discipline leads to the emergence of conceptual and theoretical approaches which contributes to the tourism literature. There are few types of theoretical models of tourism; descriptive models, explanatory models and predictive models (Chorley and Haggett 1967). A descriptive model depicts the tourism system while explanatory model illustrates how the system and subsystem function. The predictive model is developed based on causal relationship which allows prediction. Tourism is a multidisciplinary as the phenomenon within this discipline cannot be studied using a single disciplinary (Matthews and Ritcher 1991). Tourism scholars adapt theories from other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics and etc. (Sheldon 1991). Borrowing theories from other discipline is common in tourism discipline. Even though, there is short of theory building within this discipline, scholars developed few key concepts in tourism such as tourism system (Leiper 1979), tourist typology (Plog 1974; Cohen 1972; Smith 1977) and Butler’s Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) (Butler, 1980). Various theories are employed to understand the tourists’ travel behavior, motivation, consumption pattern, and...

Psychology is a discipline that focuses on the study of human mind and behavior (Pearce & Packer, 2013). It attempts to understand and explain the way a human thinks, feels, and acts. Philosophy and biology are the two major roots of psychology. In fact, the discussion on psychology can be traced back to the great Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Socrates. The modern psychology would probably emerge upon a Wilhelm Wundt’s experiment in 1879 on the human mind’s composition (Annenberg Foundation, 2013). This new perspective gave rise to psychology as an independent discipline. As the psychology discipline continues to evolve along time, several schools of thought have emerged. Among the major schools are structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitivism, and humanism. Each school has its own dominance at its own period of time. The cumulative knowledge of the different schools adds on to better understanding of human thought and behavior. Different schools adopt its own perspectives, producing several psychology theories which stay popular until today. Some of the widely accepted research methods in psychological studies are correlational evaluations, experiments, and longitudinal researches. This chapter is to highlight and discuss among some of the most popular psychology theories in management studies: the behavioral, cognitive, humanist, personality, social psychology, and learning theories. The discussion will enable readers to grasp the past, present and future of the mainstream psychology.

The increase in aging population globally stimulates the demand for international retirement travel. Even though
unsatisfactory retirement experiences could deter its growth potential, little knowledge is available on the retirees'
challenges encountered at the second home destination. The study responds to the discouraging growth of European retirees in Malaysia, compared with Asian counterparts. Being “problem based” in nature, this study employed in-depth phenomenological method. Twenty-three international retirees in Malaysia were interviewed, and the data were analyzed using NVivo. We also triangulated the data with several primary and secondary sources. The paper highlights new perspectives on the challenges related to unclear rules and regulations, unprofessional officers, unreliable postal service, and unstandardized banking procedures, which deserve certain attention from the second home destination promoters. The findings provide useful pointers for professional practitioners in product development and marketing of international second home destination.

The growth of global medical tourism in the recent years had spurred the interest of many governments to join in the bandwagon, particularly from Asia. Using the SWOT analytical model, this paper provides pertinent comparative analysis of the medical tourism destinations here being Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India. Each destination possesses its own value propositions to convince the demands of medical tourists. Malaysia and Thailand have a good mixture of elements (medical, tourism and wellness) to be an excellent medical tourism destination while Singapore and India need further development in some of these elements. Meeting or exceeding the medical tourists’ expectations and requirements are the priority of medical tourism destination marketers in ensuring a successful medical tourism industry development.

Following the identification of medical tourism as a growth sector by the Malaysian government in 1998, significant government sector and private-sector investments have been channeled into its development over the past 15 years. This is unfolding within the broader context of social services being devolved to for-profit enterprises and ‘market-capable’ segments of society becoming sites of intensive entrepreneurial investment by both the private sector and the state. Yet, the opacity and paucity of available medical tourism statistics severely limits the extent to which medical tourism's impacts can be reliably assessed, forcing us to consider the real effects that the resulting speculation itself has produced and to reevaluate how the real and potential impacts of medical tourism are – and should be – conceptualized, calculated, distributed, and compensated for. Contemporary debate over the current and potential benefits and adverse effects of medical tourism for destination societies is hamstrung by the scant empirical data currently publicly available. Steps are proposed for overcoming these challenges in order to allow for improved identification, planning, and development of resources appropriate to the needs, demands, and interests of not only medical tourists and big business but also local populations.

Generally, the international second home (ISH) retirement develops from the need for better life quality of the aging population globally. “Malaysia My Second Home” (MM2H) is an ISH scheme that aims to attract inbound retiree market in Malaysia. This study explores the retirement motivations and their influences on ISH decision using the combination of push–pull travel motivation theory and tri-reference point (TRP) theory, while simultaneously comparing the British and the Japanese retirees. We interviewed 26 MM2H participants in depth and content analyzed the data with qualitative NVivo software. Other than common motivations shared by both groups, there are also distinct differences, especially with regards to environmental preference and risk taking. Only two motives fit into all the three elements of TRP, with most motives either explained by a single or dual reference point. Based on the findings, the study proposes its knowledge, marketing, and managerial implications.

Georgetown in Penang Island, a World Heritage Town that attracts large number of tourists eventually created high competition among hoteliers within the hotel industry. As the competition escalating among hoteliers, it is always a question of customer satisfaction that may ensure the sustainability of heritage hotels in Penang Island. Realising the competitive situations, this study examines, (1) The demographic profile of heritage hotels’ patrons in Penang Island (2) The relationship between satisfaction attributes and overall satisfaction among the heritage hotels’ patrons (3) The impact of demographic factors to the patrons’ satisfaction attributes. Four satisfaction attributes (ambience, service, price, and brand) have been studied against the overall satisfaction of the heritage hotels’ patrons. By purposive convenience sampling method, 135 usable questionnaires were further analysed, indicating a final 45% response rate. Entertainment, layout, facilities, staff responsiveness and competence, price positioning, and brand identification are among the highest rated satisfaction items among the heritage hotel patrons. Regression analysis shows that only price and brand indicated a significant positive relationship with overall satisfaction. Demographic variables of gender, age, and nationality demonstrate a significant relationship with the four satisfaction attributes and overall satisfaction. Theoretical and practical contributions of the study have been discussed as well.

This paper explores reasons for choosing Malaysia as a retirement location.In-depth interviews were carried out with 30 international retirees.Pearce's concept of the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) guided the data analysis and results discussion.The dominant motivation themes clustered in the seeking of self-fulfilment needs.Issues as to overlaps between motives and stages in the TCL are discussed.‘Malaysia My Second Home’ is an international retirement migration programme aimed at attracting the lucrative retiree market to choose Malaysia as their residence. This study implemented the concept of the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) (Pearce, 1991), with a purposeful sample of 30 participants who had retired to Malaysia. Questioning was directed towards their motives for selecting Malaysia and the analysis indicated that the majority of the motivation themes clustered in the seeking of self-fulfilment needs. Among motivation themes discovered are meaningful second life, positive instant thoughts, central travel location, positive retirement book description, food variety, tranquillity and simple life, political stability and security, and ease of communication. The study also revealed a challenge in applying TCL to its findings as some motivational themes simultaneously represent various TCL hierarchies. The theoretical, marketing and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Brand is crucial in differentiating the superiority of products or services over others. This is an exploratory study examining the differences in brand satisfaction between Malaysian Airlines (full service airlines) and Air Asia (low cost airlines) in Malaysia. 350 usable questionnaires were obtained from respondents in the two main airlines terminals in Kuala Lumpur. Exploratory factor analysis revealed seven brand satisfaction dimensions which are tangibles, price, core service, reputation, publicity, word-of-mouth, and employee. Generally, respondents were not satisfied with all brand dimensions of both airlines. The level of brand dissatisfaction is also higher for Malaysian Airlines compared with Air Asia. Air Asia was perceived better than Malaysian Airlines in price, publicity, and word-of-mouth. On the other hand, Malaysian Airlines was perceived better in tangibles, core service, reputation, and employee. The paper highlights some of its theoretical, managerial and marketing implications to the development of airline industry.

Malaysia's second home retirement tourism programme attracted participants globally and reached its peak in 2013. The numbers started to dwindle in 2014, particularly among the once-top nationalities: the British, Japanese, and Iranians. The lack of data on the participants' motives and satisfaction levels in quantitative forms justifies the need for this study. This research examines the ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H) participants' motivation, satisfaction, and the relationship between the two constructs. Of the 504 usable samples, we used 280 for scale development and 224 for the structural model assessment. The empirical analyses validated the conceptual model. The results revealed four ‘push’ and seven ‘pull’ motivation factors respectively. Push motivations (β = 0.568) displayed a stronger influence on the participants' overall satisfaction. The findings suggest the need for human centric marketing strategies and improvement in the central government management to enhance the attractiveness of the MM2H programme for international retirees.

While most of the second home retirement tourism studies are qualitative in nature, knowledge on retirees' demographic profile and their spending dynamics is limited. We sampled Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) participants at multiple data collection points, and received 504 usable completed questionnaires for analysis. The majority of the participants (56.3%) are aged between 60 and 69 years, mainly from Japan, the UK, and Australia. Their favourite residential locations are Klang Valley, Penang, Langkawi, Sabah, and Sarawak. Most of them stay about 10–12 months yearly in Malaysia, and spend an average of RM 6030 a month. Based on the recorded 29,390 second home participants, we calculate the potential direct spending contribution from MM2H participants to the Malaysian economy as RM 1.68 billion a year. We propose some marketing and managerial recommendations.

A critical issue for the continued success of a company is its capacity to build customer loyaty. The concept of customer loyalty has been researched extensively in business and service context and is believed to be a company’s most enduring assets (Bolton, Lemon & Verhoef 2004).  Oliver (1997: 392) defines customer loyalty as “… a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same brand set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour.” There are two dimensions of customer loyalty: behavioural loyalty and attitudinal loyalty (Yi & La 2004; Dekimpe et al. 1997; Dick & Basu 1994; Jacoby & Chestnut 1978). According to Hammond, East, and Ehrenberg (1996), behavioural loyalty is the consumer’s tendency to repurchase.  Attitudinal loyalty, on other hands, as defined by Jacoby and Chestnut (1978), refers to  customer’s predisposition towards a brand, which is a function of psychological processes. Attitudinal loyalty is often measured by the degree of customers’ revisit intentions and their recommendations to others (Li & Petrick 2008; Oppermann 2000; Yoon & Uysal 2005).