THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS AND DETERMINANTS OF TOURISTS' INTENTIONS TO VISIT MALAYSIA

Tourism industry plays a critical role in the economic contributions and development of tourism-related industries in Malaysia. It makes some remarkable contributions to the foreign exchange receipts, GDP and job opportunities in the country. However, reduction of the tourist arrivals in past years and failure to reach targeted tourist arrivals in Malaysia for consecutive years are found in current tourism industry. These issues might arise some adverse impacts to economy and tourism-related industries. This study aims to explore and analyse the determinants of tourists’ intentions to visit and the economic contributions of tourism industry in Malaysia. To assess the extent of economic contributions and the intentions of tourists to visit Malaysia, the relevant concepts such as intention and motivation to visit are discussed in this research. Push and pull factors and TPB model are analysed from various literatures available to explain the trend, purposes, intentions of the tourists to visit Malaysia and economic contributions of tourism industry. Generally, the states with popular tourist attractions would possess higher occupancy rate, number of hotel and room supply. Among the top ten origin countries of the tourists who visited Malaysia, half of them belong to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Findings of the study regard to tourist arrivals and receipts, hotel industry, origin countries of tourists and purposes of tourists to visit Malaysia are analysed. In short, there are various of internal and external factors that can influence the intention and motivation of tourists to visit Malaysia. The findings of this study can benefit the government authorities as well as the operators and marketers of tourist destinations promotion to deliver efficient some efforts in the tourism sector pertinently