In this evolving digitalized ecosphere, ecotourism is one of the important catalysts in tourism and the government has been looking forward to the opportunities in promoting the uniqueness of ecotourism attraction through Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign. Moreover, the development of ecotourism destination should be implemented in a way that maximizes destination competitiveness. In our study, we examine the relationship between the tangible components of ecotourism destination competitiveness, namely, accessibility accommodation, cultural heritage, entertainment, infrastructure, natural resources, range of activities, and special events offered with ecotourism destination competitiveness, from the demand side point of view. A total of 225 respondents comprising tourists both international and domestic tourists visited Gunung Gading National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia took part voluntarily in this study. To assess the developed model, WarpPLS (version 6.0) was applied based on path modelling and then bootstrapping to generate the standard error of the estimate and p-values. Interestingly, the findings suggested that accessibility, natural resources, infrastructure and range of activities had a significant positive impact on ecotourism destination competitiveness, whereas no significant impact found among accommodation, cultural heritage, entertainment, and special events. Implications of these findings were further discussed.
Aguila, G. M. & Ragot, R. (2014). Ecotourism industry in Ilijan Batangas City, Philippines: Assessing its effects as a basis of proposed tourism development plan. Quarterly Journal of Business Studies, 1(1), 24-35.
Anup, K. C. (2016). Tourism - from empirical research towards practical application. In Butowski, L. (Eds.), Ecotourism and Its Role in Sustainable Development of Nepal (p.31-59). Nepal: INTECH.
Anup, K. C., Rijal, K., & Sapkota, R. P. (2015). Role of ecotourism in environmental conservation and socioeconomic development in Annapurna conservation area, Nepal. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 22(3), 251-258.
Aref, F. & Gill, S. S. (2009). Rural tourism development through rural cooperatives. Nature and Science, 7(10), 68-73.
Armenski, T., Gomezelj, D. O., Djurdjev, B., Deri, L., & Aleksandra, D. (2011). Destination competitiveness: a challenging process for Serbia. Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography 5 (1), 19?33.
Ayikoru, M. (2015). Destination competitiveness challenges: A Ugandan perspective. Tourism Management, 50, 142-158.
Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74-94.
Bock, G. W., Zmud, R. W., Kim, Y. G., & Lee, J. N. (2005). Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: Examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological factors, and organizational climate. MIS quarterly, 29(1), 87-111.
Buhalis, D. (2000). Marketing the Competitive Destination of the Future. Tourism Management, 21(1), 97-116.
Bredenhann, J., & Wickens. E. (2004). Tourism routes as a tool for the economic development of rural areas - vibrant hope or impossible dream? Tourism Management, 15, 13-22.
Cândea, M., St?ncioiu, F. A., Mazilu, M., & Marinescu, R. C. (2009). The competitiveness of the tourist destination on the future tourism market. WSEAS Transactions On Business And Economics, 6(7), 374 384.
C?pr?rescu, G., Daniela, L., & Stancu, G. (2013). Quality by keeping the identity or how to obtain competitive advantage in Romanian rural tourism. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 2(1), 1–5.
Ceballos-Lascurain, H. (1987). The future of ‘ecotourism’. Mexico Journal, 1, 13–14.
Center for Responsible Travel, CERST. (2017). The case for responsible travel: Trends and statistic 2017. Retrieved from:
https://www.responsibletravel.org/docs/The%20Case%20for%20Responsible%20Tra vel%202017_Final.pdf
Chi, C. G. Q., & Qu, H. (2008). Examining the structural relationships of destination image, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty: An integrated approach. Tourism management, 29(4), 624-636.
Chin, C. H., Law, F. Y., Lo, M. C., & Ramayah, T. (2018). The impact accessibility quality and accommodation quality on tourists’ satisfaction and revisit intention to rural destination in Sarawak: The moderating role of local communities’ attitude. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 10(2).
Chin, C. H., Lo, M. C., Mohamad, A. A., & Nair, V. (2017). The impacts of multi-environmental constructs on tourism destination competitiveness: Local residents’ perceptions. Journal of Sustainable Development, 10(3), 120-132.
Chin, W. W. (1998). The Partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling. In G. A. Marcoulides (Ed.), Modern methods for business research (pp. 295-336). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Chin, W. W. (2010). How to write up and report PLS analyses. In V. Esposito Vinzi, W. W. Chin, J. Henseler, & H. Wang (Eds.), Handbook of partial least squares: concepts, methods and application (pp. 645-689). Germany: Springer.
Chiutsi, S., Mukoroverwa, M., Karigambe, P., & Mudzengi, B. K. (2011). The theory and practice of ecotourism in Southern Africa. Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism, 2(2), 14–21.
Coria, J., & Calfucura, E. (2012). Ecotourism and the development of indigenous communities: The good, the bad,
In-Text Citation: (Ching et al, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Ching, J. L., Lo, M. C., Suaidi, M. K., Mohamad, A. A., & Chin, C. H. (2019). Tourists’ Perspective on Ecotourism Destination Competitiveness: The Role of Tangible Components. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(11), 335–357.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
