Abstract:
This study was conducted to examine the motivating factors in ecotourism
participation in Malaysia. Ecotourism is a growing industry that includes
visiting natural regions that are untouched, pristine, and capable of
providing tourists with experiences, education, and environmental
sustainability. Despite the growing interest in ecotourism, motivational
factors that lead to ecotourism participation in Malaysia remain limited.
Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate whether, attitude,
interpersonal relationships, and infrastructures have a significant
contribution towards tourists’ motivation in ecotourism. The empirical
analysis was carried out among tourists in Malaysia collecting 232
responses using Google forms. Descriptive, reliability and Pearson’s
correlation analysis were performed. Attitude, interpersonal relationships,
and infrastructures were found to have a significant moderate correlation
with motivation. The study indicated that attitude is the strongest factor
followed by interpersonal relationships in explaining ecotourism
motivation in Malaysia. This study provided novelty on factors that
motivate tourists to participate in Malaysian ecotourism. Accordingly, the
findings of this research can help public and private companies to improve
the tourism supply, create sustainable plans and potentially develop more
efficient marketing planning towards ecotourism according to the
motivating factors.
