THE TOURIST BEHAVIOUR IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS : A LITERATURE REVIEW

In ensuring the tourism destinations are successful and sustained, good quality environments are needed. Furthermore, without an attractive environment, there would be no tourism activities. Nevertheless, people generate and encompass many different types and patterns of changes in the environment and in turn, the environment can facilitate and even reduce stress to people. In this context, it is necessary to understand the perspective of tourists and knowing what they look for in a particular destination to obtain a better understanding of spatial tourism behaviour and areas of sustainable tourist destinations. The primary focus of this paper is to understand the perceptions, expectations, experiences and motivations that tourists have when they choose to visit specific tourist destinations. Based on the literature, identifying and examining the elements of tourist attractions, tourist preferences, the values which characterize the tourism demand and their relationship to the environment would highlight challenges as well as implications for tourism development especially in Malaysia. Keyword: Tourist behaviour, environment, perceptions, expectations, experiences, motivations Date Received: 30 April 2016 Date of Acceptance: 30 October 2016 Asra Zaliza Asbollah, Norhaslina Hassan, Safiah @ Yusmah Muhammad Yusoff, & Hanizah Idris The Tourist Behaviour in Different Environments: A Literature Review © 2017 by MIP 280 INTRODUCTION Despite a wide range of publications assessing the behaviour of tourists to various environmental settings, little is actually known about the complexity of demand responses towards different environments in the Malaysian context. The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss existing studies and provide a framework for a better understanding of tourist behaviour. The literature indicates that tourism has a significant effect on social life globally that can no longer be understood as merely what happens at the location of the destination, nor why tourists choose to do something different from their normal life and work. Tourism is a central part of understanding the social organization of destination and is no longer simply a specialist consumer product or mode of tourist consumption (Inglis, 2000; Framke, 2002). In other words, tourism is not only about supply and demand but also relates to the behaviour of tourists. The reasons for undertaking a literature review is because it provides as complete a list as possible especially all the published and unpublished studies relating to particular subject areas and towards the end, this study summarizes and draws conclusions about the relevant topic. This study undergone a few stages of the literature review. It began with an extensive review to establish the context and rationale for this study so as to confirm the choice of research focus or question. Then, the topic is refined by narrowing down the relevant and detailed literature. The topic is then divided into key themes to make it easier to look for information. This study also uses different journal articles and books to identify key authors and significant theories that relate to the themes and make them as a starting point. Finally, this study relates the findings from the literature and identifies the implications for this study. TOURIST BEHAVIOUR In order to identify behaviour in relation to tourism, it is crucial for researchers to understand what motivates tourist, their perceptions, expectations and also their experiences. This begins with a particular focus on the perception of the tourist. Tourism is no longer simply regarded as a universal and homogenous phenomenon, it is essentially a contemporary phenomenon and thus needs to be analysed in view of the larger context of modernity (Wang, Yamada & Brothers, 2011). It can be stated as the linkages between travel and knowledge recognized in contemporary travel practices which people in modern world tend to explore other parts that are different from their normal place. In other words, people use traveling as a mean to perform their own modernity. The tourism, in which the modern world lust for visuality and geographical movement, accelerated tremendously with the inventions of cameras; caused a profound multiplication of images and sights; a constitutive part of modernity’s traveling cultures. In addition, little research has been conducted looking at movements of tourists. As Lau and McKercher (2006) reported, factors such human (motivation and travel party) and physical (destination geomorphology) affect tourists' choices of itineraries and give PLANNING MALAYSIA Journal of the Malaysia Institute of Planners (2017) © 2017 by MIP 281 reasons to support the shaping of the movement patterns. Thus, it can be said that contemporary tourism is fundamentally constructed culturally, socially and materially through images and performances of destinations. The term perception refers to a view of the total environment that is cognitively sensed and experienced and becomes the basis for decision-making (Morin, Gates & Zimmerman, 2009). Furthermore, people construct views through space, and organize the acquired knowledge, information and experience through the senses (Lau & McKercher, 2006). Thus, the tourist perception is generally referred to the outcomes that visitors have constructed for a physical and social environment they have visited. This perception differs between each individual, as there are various perception within individuals depending on their past and present experiences through values, needs, memories, moods, social circumstances, and expectations (Saarinen, 1976). This means that perception is different for each individual tourist at any time regarding anything or towards different environment setting. This is indeed because of the perception is strongly linked to psychology, and people construct their views based on cognitive processes that capture and organize knowledge, experiences and information through the senses (Lau & McKercher, 2006). Thus, a destination’s pull factors, such as their promotional activities, weather, beaches, scenery, facilities and attractions are also important influences in setting expectations, and subsequently, in meeting the needs of tourists. Tourists’ perception of a destination is also likely to be influenced not only by their own experience but also by their expectations of that destination. These expectations are built on the representations permeating their own culture and absorbed from the media, the advice from friends and relatives, and guidebooks and travel brochures (Jenkins, 2000). However, tourists’ expectations of a destination do not necessarily match as what the guidebook or travelogue describes. In short, different expectations held by different tourists in different kinds of environments resulted in different types of behaviours. Expectation derives from a number of sources that include the qualities and perceptions which will be influenced by tourists’ cultural backgrounds (Fountain, Espiner & Xie, 2011). Once tourists activated their needs and requirements of travel, motivation is the key factor in the formation of expectations. The expectation, conversely, determines the perception of a performance of the products and services at a destination, and the perception of the experience. Tourist behaviour may have distinctive phases of expectation, partly because tourists have the ability to transform their expectation through their experience. Presumably, the understanding of what to expect at a destination also colours the behaviour that different tourists use to interpret their travel experience. In parallel, the tourist experience comprises everything that tourists have seen, done or felt during their trips (Inglis, 2000). Khalilah (2006) argues that tourist experience is a significant process and outcome of tourism. It will determine whether a visit is successful or not for the tourists, and consequently, how they rate their overall experience will influence their future travel decisions. Asra Zaliza Asbollah, Norhaslina Hassan, Safiah @ Yusmah Muhammad Yusoff, & Hanizah Idris The Tourist Behaviour in Different Environments: A Literature Review © 2017 by MIP 282 McIntosh (2003) reported that gazing and authenticity are among the dimensions of the tourist experience. Chui, Rahim, Hassan, Musa, Yusof and Hashim (2010) defined tourist experience “as a temporal account of the tourist gaze as to describe the process through which a tourist reminisces the place or experience he or she encounters”. In other words, the gaze is a recollection of the temporal experience which, there is an aura to the fullest extent of the experience. However, tourist’s experiences vary according to the varieties of people and their geographical distribution. At the same time, tourist experience is influenced by different factors such as traveling experience, destination attributes and attractions (Li, 2000). Apparently, destinations can offer and provide more than just one type of tourism experience. In relation to that, to provide a high-quality experience, one must understand what factors can motivate and influence people to travel. Figure 1 Formation of Travel Motivation Source: Humphreys & Holloway (2009) Another view states that motivation is one way of determining tourist behaviour (Dann, 1981). He continued in his assessment of tourist motivation mentioned that there is consent, that an understanding of motivation express why an individual or group have behaved or are about to perform an action. Sharing this view, Moutinho (1987) similarly asserts that motivation refers to a state of need, a condition that exerts a push on the individual towards certain types of actions that are likely to bring satisfaction. In other words, motivation is closely related to a tourist’s needs, personality and way of life. On top of that, motivations activate and direct the behaviour of the tourist. A