Journal 4 - Rural Tourism Quality of Services: Fundamental Contributive Factors from Tourists’ Perceptions
Research Framework
Yazdi and Shakouri (2010) found that climate change is one of the biggest contemporary threats to the tourism industry and could affect tourists’ choices on selecting a destination. In short, climate change may determine the attractiveness of a rural tourism destination. Carrying capacity is recognized as an influencing factor for the successful development of a rural tourism destination (Manuel & Miguel, 2008). This is because of the fact that tourists are attracted by the relaxing environment. Thus, limiting the number of tourists visiting at a time leads to a better quality of services experienced by tourists. Some of the researchers have also highlighted that the main motivation for tourists to visit a rural tourism destination is the peace and natural environment of a destination for relaxation (Cai & Li, 2009; Park & Yoon, 2009; Yu, 2014). Thus, it is important to note that a better relaxation environment of a destination will result in a higher quality of services and experiences for tourists. As stated by past researchers (Harrill, 2004; Knollenberg, 2011), preservation of the natural and cultural attractions at a rural destination needs to involve local communities. As developments directly impact the community, they largely determine the success and failure of sustainable rural tourism. Community support towards providing excellent visitor services can become one of the attractions for tourists to visit a particular destination (Tosun, Temizkan, Timothy, & Fyall, 2007).
Items of Variables
The results of this study indicated that climate change had the greatest significant positive impact on the rural tourism quality of services. As stated by past research (Gómez, 2000, 2004), climate change affects the tourism location, tourism resource, and tourist attraction. In the same breath, Keith (2007) found that climate change is ascertained to be a crucial factor in influencing tourists’ decision to visit a destination. Commonly, tourism destinations are expected to have a good climate with warm temperatures, clear waters, and low health risk in addition to cultural and natural attractions (Sheller, 2004).
However, the impact of climate change alters environmental conditions and brings additional implications for the tourism industry in terms of environmental sustainability (European Union, 2012). This reduces the appropriate level of attractiveness for a rural tourism destination (Stetic, 2012) and its quality of services to be experienced by tourists. Thus, in this study, the climate conditions are said to be influencing tourists’ enjoyment, safety, and comfort while carrying out tourism activities. This is due to the fact that most of the tourism activities among these study sites are conducted outdoors. Hence, tourists agree that in order to experience the greatest quality of services from a rural tourism destination, it is vital to protect the environment during tourism activities to minimize the issues of climate change.
Theory Review
Stakeholder Theory
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This study utilized stakeholder theory as the major hypothesis to shape the study framework as it is exceptionally applicable to this research topic and is broadly utilized and bolstered by researchers. In stakeholder theory, a stakeholder is defined as any group or individual who is correlated to the successful development of tourism (Freeman, 1984). Specifically, this theory highlighted the necessity to understand the perceptions of stakeholders from both supply and demand sides for tourism planning and the management of sustainable tourism (Byrd, Bosley, & Dronberger, 2009; Dorcheh & Mohamed, 2013; Urde, 2003). In addition, past studies have propounded that local government, local entrepreneurs, and residents are the supply-side stakeholders, whereas the tourist is the sole representative of the demand-side stakeholders. Building upon stakeholder theory which clarifies tourists’ perceptions in rural tourism quality of services development this study hypothesized the impact of four influencing factors (climate change, carrying capacity, relaxing environment, and community support) on the development of quality of services for rural tourism destinations in the land of Borneo, Malaysia.
Service Quality Theory
As stated by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985), the quality of services is the result of the comparison that customers make between their expectations about service and perceptions of the way the service was delivered. Based on the service quality theory, the quality of service was ascertained as a key determinant for a tourism destination to gain success in the marketplace. Previous studies (Dwyer & Kim, 2003; Go & Govers, 2000; Tozser, 2010) have highlighted the importance of quality of services in determining visitors’ satisfaction and the competitiveness of a tourism destination. The service attributes can be further divided into tangible (e.g. infrastructure and applied technologies) and intangible attributes (such as security, convenience, friendliness, and competence) (Williams & Zigli, 1987). However, environmental components of the destination, which include natural scenery, friendliness, and cleanliness, are the key predictors of the destination’s quality (Murphy, Evans, & Storfer, 2010) and eventually affect the competitiveness of the tourism destination (Yu, Morais, & Chick, 2005).