Title: Tourist's perceptions on man-made elements, natural elements and community support on rural tourism destination competitiveness

Authors: Chee-Hua Chin; May-Chiun Lo

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan 94300, Sarawak, Malaysia ' Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan 94300, Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract: Modern-day tourists are becoming more demanding than ever and this has increased the competition in tourism industry. Based on the tourists' perceptions, it is crucial to recognise the key success factors that act as the ultimate driving forces that will undeniably help in the development of the tourism especially the rural destinations in order to stay relevant. The purpose of this study is to examine and identify the key success factors that will contribute to the development of tourism destinations competitiveness from the tourists' perspectives. A total of 309 respondents comprising of tourists from Sarawak, Malaysia had volunteered to take part in this survey. The SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is used to assess the developed model based on path modelling followed by bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that the tourists' concerns are focused on the accessibility quality, accommodation, entertainment, tourism infrastructure and community support for the development of tourism destination competitiveness.

Keywords: key success factors; Malaysia; rural tourism; Sarawak; tourism destination competitiveness; tourists perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2017.086443

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2017 Vol.5 No.3, pp.227 - 247

Received: 16 Mar 2017
Accepted: 11 Apr 2017
Published online: 10 Sep 2017 *

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