ATTITUDE, INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, AND INFRASTRUCTURES AS MOTIVATING FACTORS TO VISIT MALAYSIAN ECOTOURISM DESTINATIONS

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.