(COVER PAGE)

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

MAY / 2017

BBRC4103

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

ASSIGNMENT II
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY BBRC4103

CONTENT PAGES

1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………… 2

1.1 Problem Statement ………………………………………………… 3

1.2 Objective of Research………………………………………………. 3

2.0 Literature Review……………………………………………..……………. 4-5

3.0 Theoretical framework…………………………………………………….. 6-7

4.0 Research Methodology……………………………………………………... 8 -10

5.0 Research Project Schedule (Gantt Chart)………………………………….. 11

6.0 Estimated Project Cost……………………………………………………….11

7.0 References…………………………………………………………………….12 -14

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1.0 Introduction 1x4m-150w

Tourism is one of the largest growing industries around the world and it has a great role to the
Malacca in Malaysia. This research conduct to investigate the core factors that influence satisfaction
level of tourist with specific reference to tourism industry in Malacca. Satisfied tourists will revisit
the place and they will provide positive word-of-mouth. So it is indispensable to identify which
factors around the tour destinations have impact on overall satisfaction of tourists.
The expectation and satisfaction level of tourists are required in order to identify the
weaknesses that exist in an area. From there, improvements could be conducted to fulfill the needs of
tourists regarding heritage elements and physical infrastructure that exists in a Heritage City.
Heritage elements are significant as a main attraction force for tourists to visit historic areas. The
need for infrastructure is important to improve tourist accessibility when they are visiting a
destination.
This research applies the quantitative analysis through questionnaire survey forms to a total
of 210 tourists, together with visual analysis and inventories conducted for the core zone of Melaka
City. The results from the visual analysis using the principal component analysis with varimax
rotation has identified 24 relevant items that could be divided into three main factors such as heritage
elements, infrastructure and supporting elements.
Each tourist possesses a different level of satisfaction between one another. This is due to the
fact that every tourist has their own expectations, inspirations and experiences. A deeper
understanding of the expected target will provide guidance in regards to the development of areas of
attractions which will help enhance tourism services (Aksu et. al.,2010). Infrastructure is deemed an
important aspect in determining the development of an area. Potential attractiveness of a tourist
destination determined is the basic infrastructure of a country based on Gunn (1988) and Inskeep
(1991).Crouch and Ritchie (1999) stated that tourism development plans will not succeed without
basic infrastructure such as roads, ports, electricity and water. Meanwhile, heritage tourists
concentrate on the story of a community and also the places of interest through interpretations of
cultural landscapes and the conservation and preservation of historical appearance (National
Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers 2011) which are the elements found in the
heritage site.

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1.1Problem Statement
Melaka is one of the fourteen states of Malaysia. It is located in south western coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. The area of Melaka is 1,658 square kilometers and divided into three districts,
namely Melaka Tengah, Alor Gajah and Jasin. It takes about two hours travel by road from Kuala
Lumpur to Melaka and approximately three hours travel by road to Singapore. Melaka is a well-
known historical state that rich with various tourism destinations since decades ago. In fact, tourism
under the services sector recorded as the most important economic sector in the state, contributing
46.6% of GDP.
In attracting the tourist arrival and investors, state government has brought forward a slogan
for promotional purpose. The slogan ―Visit Melaka Means Visit Malaysia‖ has launched in early
year of 2000. On July 7, 2008, Melaka have been recognized by United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage City.
The city has seen as a historical and heritage witness of 500 years of trading and cultural
exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Melaka. UNESCO is now assisting Melaka to
preserve and restore the valuable colonial buildings, squares, and churches that have been left by
Portuguese, Dutch and British back in 15th- century. After the recognition by UNESCO, Melaka is
now becoming the domestic and international tourists’ node with recorded the highest number,
13.711 million of tourists in 2012. They successfully attracted 1.366 million of domestic tourists in
2012 as compared to 3.512 million in 2007. In fact, the domestic arrivals grow faster after the
UNESCO recognition from 4.857 million in 2007 to 10,199 million in 2012.
Although the state government is very committed collaborating with the state tourism players.
The number of tourism has declined and the number of complaints has increased in the last few years
due to the customer satisfaction when travel in Malacca.
1.2Objective of Research 1x4m 150w
Research Objective
1. To identify the factors that affect tourist satisfaction in Malacca, Malaysia.
2. To identify factors affecting number of tourist decline in Malacca state.
3. To identify the types of complaints made by tourist that visit the three districts in Malacca.
4. To find out ways to improve tourism in Malacca.
Research Question
1. What are the factors affecting tourist’s satisfaction in Malacca?
2. What are the factors causing the decline of tourist in Malacca?
2. Which type of complain made by tourist that visit Malacca?
3. What are the effective ways to improve tourism in Malacca?

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2.0Literature Review
Tourism industry is important as it plays an important role in the economy of developing and
developed countries. Tourism is a dynamic and competitive industry that requires the ability to adapt
constantly to customers' changing needs and desires, as the customer’s satisfaction, safety and
enjoyment are particularly the focus of tourism businesses. Leading researchers have recognized the
important of tourism products: "Misunderstanding of the tourism product is often a constraint in a
smoothly functioning tourism system". Tourism product development includes information services,
transportations, accommodations, and attraction (Gunn, 2006). The tourism product is described as a
series of determinants from variable destinations, which produce an output for tourists. The model
consists of a hierarchy of five elements: the physical plant, service, hospitality, freedom of choice,
and involvement. As described in this research, the physical plant is the core of the tourism product,
which includes the natural resources, fixed properties (such as accommodations), accessibility,
acceptable environmental quality, good weather, and appropriate numbers of other tourist (Smith,
2000).
Tourist satisfaction can be analyzed as a relationship between the sacrifices and rewards he
expects in terms of time, cost or effort and value received (Oliver & Swan, 1989). Tourists compare
their present destination with other alternative or past experience (Yoon & Usal, 2005). Tourist
satisfaction with a particular destination may be the result of multiple factors, including the
expectations generated before and during the trip, as well as the tourist’s discernment of service
received. Tourist satisfaction reflects both a cognitive and an emotional phenomenon (Bigne &
Andreu 2004). The analysis of the causes of that generate satisfaction is much scarcer. Among the
different types of antecedents that influence tourist satisfaction, a great deal of analysis has been
directed towards the attributes of the service offering.
The literature reveals that the level of tourist satisfaction with a particular trip is the result of
different factors (Peter & Olson, 1996) which are generally assessed as a composition between the
tourist‟s perception of products and services he receives and the expectations generated before and
during his trip (Barsky & Labagh 1992; Bigne & Andreu, 2004; Chon 7 Olsen, 1991). Most studies
on tourist satisfaction focus on measurement techniques and types of variables related to customer
satisfaction (Noe and Uysal 1997; Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman 1993). Tourist satisfaction is
defined as post-consumption evaluation concerning a specific product or service (Westbrook &
Oliver, 1991), and proposed to be one of the key judgments that tourists make regarding a tourism
service. Hence, it is a well-established, long-standing focus marketer attention (Yuksel & Yuksel,
2002).

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Melaka is one of the fourteen states of Malaysia. It is located in south western coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. The area of Melaka is 1,658 square kilometers and divided into three districts,
namely Melaka Tengah, Alor Gajah and Jasin. It takes about two hours travel by road from Kuala
Lumpur to Melaka and approximately three hours travel by road to Singapore. Melaka is a well-
known historical state that rich with various tourism destinations since decades ago. In fact, tourism
under the services sector recorded as the most important economic sector in the state, contributing
46.6% of GDP. The state government is very committed collaborating with the state tourism players.
As a result, rapid development of the tourism industry in Melaka enhance foreign exchange earner,
contributing to economic growth, attract investment and create employment opportunities. Melaka
State Government more focused in the way of the country's position as a leading foreign tourist
destination, as well as enhances ongoing efforts to promote local tourism.

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3.0Theoretical framework

Destination
Image

Tourist
Satisfaction

Service Cost
Quality

Hypothesis 1 (H1): There is a significance influence between perceived level of destination image
towards perceived level of tourists’ satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2 (H2): There is a significance influence between perceived level of service quality
towards perceived level of tourists’ satisfaction.
Hypothesis 3 (H3): There is a significance influence between perceived level of cost towards
perceived level of tourists’ satisfaction
Tourist satisfaction is important to successful destination marketing because it influences the
choice of destination, the consumption of products and services, and the decision to return (Kozak &
Rimmington, 2000). Pearce (2008) defined tourism entertainment as structured and managed
situations designed for a predominantly visitor audience, which include cultural shows, dance
performances, theme park presentations, fun guided tours, and film and video presentations tailored
exclusively for visitors. Choosing a holiday destination is a rational process involving different
factors (McGehee, Loker-Murphy & Uysal): the tourist feels the need to travel and looks for a
“product” which initially may offer the greatest satisfaction to fulfill that need. In such a process, the
tourist feels „pushed‟ by internal and emotional factors, as well as attracted by the characteristics of
the destination and the availability of activities (Crompon, 1979; Dann, 1977; Uysal & Jurowski,
1994). The distinction between overall satisfaction and attribute satisfaction is discussed as
important, given that overall satisfaction is based on the overall experience, not just a single feature
of the product (Spreng, Mackenzie & Olashavsky 1996).

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Tourists’ satisfaction with a destination may reflect a type of tourist overall satisfaction with a
journey, while satisfaction with transport, travelling party, accommodation, activities performed
while staying at the destination, etc., could impact upon the total judgment of a trip to a particular
destination. Many reasons cause tourists to be satisfied with their trip or journey, including the
quality of the services provided, such as infrastructure, security, cleanliness, natural situation,
consumer protection and easily obtained (Handszuh, 1995). Other researchers focus on satisfaction
with certain aspects of a tour, e.g. hotels (Saleh and Ryan 1992; Heide, Grnhaug & Engset 1999).
Tourists’ shopping satisfaction is studied by Reisinger and Turner (2002). In addition, physical
factors, such as the destination product performance and psychological equipment products, such as
meaningful destination are also factors that translate to satisfaction and loyalty of travel destination
(Uysal & Noe, 2003).
One of the most relevant research issues for the tourist sector is to analyze why people travel
and what they expect from their destination (Yoon & Uysal, 2005), i.e.; what are the motive behind
the trip. Consumer behavior literature states that need and motivation are interrelated (Witt &
Wright, 2006). A series of research has tried to classify the main attributes of any particular
destination (Kale & Weir, 1986). Such items include safety and security, climate, culture, Equipment
&Facilities, transport, entertainment, cost of travel and political stability.

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4.0Research Methodology
The targeted sample in this study will be international tourists that having holiday in Malacca
for at least two nights. According to the available statistic, Malacca had received 8.9 million of
tourists in year 2010 alone. As a preliminary study, a total sample of about 210 respondents was
recruited between August to December 2011. They were selected randomly in several travel spots
in the heart of Historic Malacca City, namely Jonker Street, Queen Victoria’s Fountain, Heeren
Street, Porta de Santiago, Pahlawan Square, Riverside (Jalan Laksamana), Quayside, St. Paul’s
Hill; several hotel entrances like Equatorial Hotel, Hatten Square and Geographer Café (a nightlife
spot with many foreign tourists). The results of the pre-test for 30 tourists indicated that the time
required to complete whole questionnaire was around 10-12 minutes. For clarity, several items in
the questionnaires have been improved based on the feedbacks from earlier respondents.
Measurement for the independent constructs was developed in several stages. An initial pool
of items was generated from related measures, extensive literature reviews and from in-depth
interview with five frequent international travelers to Malacca. In-depth interviews were conducted
to generate travel items that were specific in the Malacca context. This procedure resulted in a set of
21 items as presented in Table 1. All these items were measured on five-point Likert scale. Out of
210 questionnaires that were returned, ten were incomplete and were not used in any of the
analyses. 200 respondents from 44 countries took part. Those countries are across the world from
American, Latin American, European, Asian, Africa and Middle East regions. The top five sources
of the respondents are from China with total of 35 respondents, followed by Iran, United States of
America , United Kingdom , Australia and the rest of the countries have less than ten respondents.
The details of the descriptive analysis of the respondents’ characteristics are shown in Table 2
below:
Table 1: Travel Destination Items

No. Items Main Source(s)

1 Has good recreational & leisure facilities [10]
2 Has many historical attractions *
3 Has good shopping opportunities [9]
4 Famous of its night life [9]
5 Multicultural city which has various culture features [11]
6 Clean travelling environment [10]
7 Local people friendliness and hospitable [10]
8 Has a safe travelling environment [10]
9 Accommodation facilities have well maintained [13]
10 Historic buildings have well maintained and protected *
11 Tourist information centre is easily accessible *

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12 Tourist information centre staff tried to be helpful in solving my problems *

13 The hotel staff gave me authentic smiles all the time [12]
14 All service providers give a warm welcome at the door step [12]
15 Price of food and beverages is reasonable [14]
16 Price of accommodation is reasonable [14]
17 Price of transportation is reasonable [15]
18 Entrance fees of tourist destination spots are worth the money I have paid *
19 Price is the major consideration for me in travel decision making [15]
20 I don’t mind to pay more for better choice or quality *
21 Travelling cost in Malacca is affordable *
________________________________________________________________________
* items are generated from in-depth interviews

Table 2: Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Characteristics Frequency (%) Characteristics Frequency (%)

Gender Level of Education
Male 94 47.0 Primary School 11 5.5
Female 106 53.0 Secondary School (High School) 30 15.0
Age Diploma 29 14.5
16-20 49 24.5 Bachelor Degree 113 56.5
21-25 70 35.0 Postgraduate Degree 17 8.5
26-30 58 29.0 Occupation
31-35 13 6.5 Student 148 74.0
36-40 7 3.5 Business people 31 15.5
41-45 3 1.5 Professional 9 4.5
Marital Status Others 12 6.0
Single 147 73.5
Married 53 26.5

Findings:
The Cronbach’s Alpha (α) for all the dimensions have exceeding the value of 0.7 (Table 3) which
show good consistency.
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics and Cronbach’s Alpha

Descriptive Statistics Mean SD Cronbach’s Alpha

Destination Image 4.20 0.85 0.85
Service Quality 3.87 0.81 0.74
Cost 4.33 0.91 0.84
Travel Satisfaction 4.04 0.78 0.76

*Total sample size = 200, SD = Standard Deviation

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Multiple regression analysis is further conducted to assess the ability of perceived

perception of destination image, service quality and cost issue to predict the perceived level of
destination satisfaction. Preliminarily assumption testing was conducted to check for normality,
linearity, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity, with no serious violations noted. The model is
statistically significant, F (3, 200) = 44.53, p < 0.05, with all variables significantly contributing
to the prediction. The three predictors explained 55.60 per cent of the variance in perceived level
of satisfaction (Table 4). According to past study, this is a large effect. The beta weights
suggested perceived perception of cost contributes most to predicting perceived level of
satisfaction and followed by perceived perception towards travel destination image (Table 4).
Thus, all hypotheses are supported.

Table 4: Multiple Regression Analysis Summary and Hypothesis Test Results

Equation R2 F Β Hypothesis Testing
Result
PLS=TDI + SQ + CO + errors 0.556 44.53*
Travel Destination Image (TDI) 0.22* H1 supported
Service Quality (SQ) 0.16* H2 supported
Cost (CO) 0.32* H3 supported
*p<0.05, Total sample size = 200, PLS = perceived level of travel destination
satisfaction

(2,640 words)

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5.0Research Project Schedule (Gantt Chart )

24- 29- 30- 5- 6- 12- 13- 19-
Date Jul Jul Jul Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug
Activity
Writing research proposal
Reading Literature
Finalize Objective
Draft Literature Review
Construct Table for
Theoretical Framework
Draft Research Strategy and
Method
Request Statistic From
Tourist Department
Revise on secondary data
Analyst Data
Update Literature Read
Estimated Project Cost
Submit

6.0 Estimated Project Cost

Research Budget
Total Cash
Budget Items Number of Items Cost Per Item Cost
120
Cost of RM0.15 RM18
PrintingQuestionnaires

Cost of Analysing Data 1 RM15 RM15

by Online package

Cost of Paying Healper

to give out
questionnaire at Tourist RM20 per
3 RM180
destination for 3 day
selective day in a week
(if Cary out actual
Research)
Total RM213

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7.0 Reference
Web:
http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2016/11/10/rising-number-of-tourists-more-
europeans-visited-malacca-in-2015-compared-to-2014-says-cm/
https://eturbonews.com/46035/are-tourists-targeted-criminals-malaysia
http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/malacca-witnesses-record-tourism-success-in-
2016/ For the initial 10 months of 2015, the total number of tourists who travelled to Malacca
was 12,214,765.
http://www.sinarharian.com.my/mobile/edisi/melaka-ns/kek-gergasi-jadi-tarikan-baharu-
1.603222
http://www.academia.edu/6860881/INTERDISCIPLINARY_JOURNAL_OF_CONTEMPOR
ARY_RESEARCH_IN_BUSINESS_Service_Quality_and_its_Impact_on_Tourist_Satisfactio
n
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca#Tourism
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/tourism/overview-of-tourism-in-malaysia-tourism-essay.php
Sample of questionnaire and figure retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/32134308/Exploring_Tourists_Satisfaction_in_600-Year-
_Old_City_of_Historic_Malacca_EXPLORING_TOURISTS_SATISFACTION_IN_600-
YEAR-OLD_CITY_OF_HISTORIC_MALACCA?auto=download
The Daily Star, Dhaka, Available: http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/a-41-2006-07-
10-voa5- 83108392, Sep.
http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2007/november/tourism.htm
http://www.parjatan.gov.bd/function_nto.php
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=136220
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/501499.html

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MELAKA
TOURIST ARRIVALS & TOURIST
RECEIPT (2010 – 2016)
MELAKA
YEAR AVG TOURIST TOURIST RM
LENGTH OF ARRIVALS RECEIPTS SPEND/
STAY (MILLIONS) (RM’000) DAY
2010 2.13 10.35 6,331.89 287.09
2011 2.15 12.17 7,641.05 294.87
2012 2.25 13.71 9,107.55 295.22
2013 2.28 14.31 10,997.32 337.00
2014 2.01 15.03 12,013.24 397.60
2015 2.18 15.74 16,759,75 488.53
2016 2.16 16.28 18,289.49 520.04

MELAKA TOURISM BASIC DATA

2010 – 2016

MELAKA AVERAGE OCCUPANCY

2010 – 2016 (%)

TAHUN OCC NO. OF

(%) ROOMS

2010 64.04 11,215

2011 63.45 11,215
2012 70.47 11,215
2013 70.11 11,215
2014 69.63 11,215
2015 65.59 11,215
2016 66.12 11,215

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MELAKA AVERAGE ROOMRATE

2010 – 2016 (RM)

TAHUN AVR
(RM)

2010 135.60
2011 132.85
2012 136.20
2013 142.80
2014 138.40
2015 140.65
2016 148.50

MELAKA HOTEL AVERAGE

LENGTH OF STAY (NIGHTS)
2010 – 2016

TAHUN LOS
(NIGHTS)

2010 2.13
2011 2.15
2012 2.25
2013 2.28
2014 2.01
2015 2.18
2016 2.16

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