Dark tourism: is it a growth segment for the Malaysia tourism industry?

Purpose – This paper reports the empirical investigation on the causal relationship between perceived importance of dark tourism product and tour operators’ action behavior. The tour operator’s perceived importance of dark tourism attributes and how they translate their perception into action behavior was explored. The lack of support promotional activities from the travel agencies are probably the main reasons this product has yet reached its potential. Method – The sample populations were the tour operators that selling inbound and domestic tour packages in Malaysia and the required information was gathered through a self-administered questionnaire based on the purposive judgmental sampling methodology. Findings – Through a series of analyses, the results show that despite the availability of dark tourism products in Malaysia, tour operators have not aggressively promoted these sites. Minimal business profit, diseconomies of scale demand and limited resources was found to influence their unenthusiastic behaviour. Originality – This study provides useful insights into the attributes, the perceptions and evaluations of the dark tourism products by the tour operators. The outcome of this study can be used as a guide for the tourism industry policy makers to develop more efficient marketing and positioning strategies