Tourist's motivational factors and dimension of health and wellness tourism at Kalabakan forest

It is important to understand the experiential dimension of why tourists visit Kalabakan Forest and how can health and wellness be gained from tourism especially after a visit from Kalabakan Forest. The emergence of health and wellness in Sabah has raised some issues on how the tourism can contribute and then the tourism can have a Health and wellness-oriented activities have been recognized around the world with existing of different health practices of the people in different regions for staying healthy, and for healing/curing remedies as well. Tourism solely can arguably contribute too many dimensions of wellness; tourists need to be in good enough physical health to embark on a journey, as well as being materially affluent. Where there is consensus, however, is in the fact that wellness no longer constitutes the mere physical nature of the body but also note the spiritual, psychological or holistic dimensions of the experiences. Efforts to utilize the resources in the Kalabakan Forest for Health and Wellness Tourism Development seems important as less research works have been conducted due to its deteriorating environment and disturbed ecology. The study aimed to determine the motivational factors of the Health and Wellness Tourism (HWT) within Kalabakan Forest, Sabah to identify the key motivational factors of health and wellness tourists' experiences and dimension by using qualitative approach. About 13 international and domestic tourists have been interviewed. Data Collection was accessed in the Activity Hall, Long House Resort, Kalabakan Forest before departure from the visit. Interviews were taken place in quiet, private place in order to provide a thought-encouraging environment. The recorded interviews were transcribed into a written format for data analysis. The data was revised and analyzed in three stages to identify and develop appropriate themes. According to this research, perceptions, learning and attitudes may be influential to ones' motivation factors and thus influence the consumer/tourist behaviours. Accordingly, the informants think that it is important to participate in activities that contribute to ones' health and well-being. They seek to find balance or moderation in their lifestyles which is believed to makes ones healthy or healthier thus ones may live longer and able to lead more enjoyable lives. In this study, the concept of push and pull motivations is used to refer to the perceived importance of health and Wellness services for international and domestic visitors during their holiday in Asiatic Organic Farm Kalabakan Forest, Sabah. This implies that certain reasons for health and Wellness services during travel may correspond to certain benefits to the tourists that are to be valued and obtained at the destination site. Therefore, the tourism providers, health and spa providers must understand the tourists with regards to their health and spa perceptions, expectations and decisions; and so, matching the destination's health and spa attributes to the tourists' diverse needs. The experiential or expressive dimensions are hedonic, interactive, novelty, comfort, stimulation and personal safety. However, there is a new experiential group found in the research which is the spiritual seeking or holistic development. A major limitation of this study is due to the nature of the exploratory study and the type of respondent (foreign tourists) which limit the generalizability of the research findings. It suggests a comparative work in a similar context in different locations and countries would prove beneficial for the possible validation of the findings