Visitors' satisfaction towards geopark attractions

Abstract

Malaysia's tourism industry has recorded significant growth rate over the past years. Using the case of the Langkawi Island, this study is motivated by the connectivity between the island's tourism industry and economic sector with specific attention given to adopting a suitable approach for tourism development and identifying visitors as one of the most important stakeholder groups in tourism development. In line with this, this study seeks to examine visitors' perceptions and supportiveness on sustainable tourism development in KILIM Geopark. A self-administered survey was conducted to study visitors' travel characteristics as well as tendency and purpose of visitation. Interestingly, an insignificant relationship was detected between genders and the purpose of visitation. This result translates into indicating a general acceptance on KILIM Geopark where this finding offers possibility in structuring wide-range development approaches and alternatives.

Keywords::

• visitors' satisfaction
• KILIM Geopark
• sustainable tourism
• Langkawi Island

Acknowledgements

The funding for this project is made possible through the research grant obtained from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under the Long Term Research Grant Scheme 2011 [LRGS grant No.: JPT.S (BPKI)2000/09/01/015Jld.4(67)].