Pollution-free rivers with protected riverbanks offer considerable scope for tourism development. In recent decades there has been increasing interest in rivers as a tourism resource. Globally, the demand for river cruising and water sports has grown rapidly as has the development of riverbanks for tourism purposes including accommodation, restaurants, and shopping. However, the role of local communities attitudes and perceptions in the development of river tourism is crucial to developing a successful tourism resource. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of local residents regarding the development of river tourism on the Petagas River, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 79 residents of river communities to explore their perceptions of river tourism development on the Petagas River, assess their views on their likely participation in river tourism, and identify problems they thought might inhibit tourism development. The results show that while respondents were generally supportive of tourism development, they did recognise the need for river ecosystem restoration and the need to change many of the ways they currently use the river.

The current paper investigates the relationship between macroeconomic factors and tourism demand for nine selected ASEAN countries. Based on the panel data analysis, it is identified that income is positively related to tourism demand where an increase in the level of income for ASEAN leads to higher tourist arrival to the region. The income is also shown to be the most important factor that determines tourism demand as demonstrated by the high coefficient value in the estimation. The appreciation of ASEAN currencies meanwhile is identified to discourage tourists from visiting the region and on the other hand, trade openness stimulates the demand as it implies the ease of entry. Since majority of the tourist came from developed countries with high purchasing power, price level is identified to be not significant in explaining the movement of tourism demand in the region. To develop the tourism sector, proper plans should be made including to improve the infrastructure, tourism facility and travel safety, and ease of entry considering the positive impact of economic development and trade openness. Relevant strategies should also be made to attract tourists from countries with higher purchasing power and strong currency value since it implies to be important in explaining the movement of tourism demand.

Food has become an indispensable part of the tourism industry, and there are inextricable links between food and tourism. Tourist food destination is widely promoted on various websites and has become the destination’s most crucial cultural expression. Personality dietary characteristics, destination image, and behavioural attention can influence food tourism’s positive development at a destination. Chengdu, China, was chosen as a case setting to explore the effect of food tourism in China. A quantitative research approach and a self-administered questionnaire were adopted in this study. One hundred and sixty-nine respondents participated in this study, and the data were analyzed using Smart-PLS. Personal dietary characteristics were found to have an indirect effect on tourist behaviour intentions and destination image. This study will help the industry formulate corresponding management strategies for multiple influencing factors of food tourist behaviour and enhance the competitiveness of destinations.

The purpose of this research was to access the influence of hotel restaurant attributes towards customer satisfaction in the hotel restaurant. In this paper, three of the hotel restaurant attributes will be discussed. The main objectives of this study are to examine the relationship between food quality, service quality and atmosphere towards customer satisfaction in the hotel restaurant. This study using a quantitative approach and questionnaire has been distributed to the respondents who have dined in at the hotel restaurant in the Kota Kinabalu area. Meanwhile, the data for this study will be analyzed using Partial Least Square via Structural Equation Modelling. The result shows that food quality, service quality and atmosphere have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. This study will assist the hotel industry in Kota Kinabalu as generally in obtaining a better picture of the key factor that determines customer satisfaction to stay competitive with another freestanding restaurant.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the tourism industry in Malaysia decline drastically. The outbreak has continued for almost two years and has decreased local and international tourist arrivals. The decline is because of the Movement Control Order (MCO) execution, and safety precautions were issued when travelling. Nevertheless, the impressive rate of deterioration in pandemic transmission gives a new shade to domestic tourism. The Tourism Ministry has put forward an initiative that can revitalise the economic sector in the country by introducing the travel bubble destinations among Malaysians. With that, the main purpose of this study is to explore the travel bubble risk anxiety, risk attitude, and intention to travel among Malaysian when COVID-19 is still plaguing the nation. A self-administered survey was conducted online using a snowballing technique. The data collected was keyed in and analysed according to the objectives of this study. The main findings of this study highlighted that those respondents would feel anxious and worried about their safety when participating in the travel bubble. Statistical significance also revealed the respondents’ intentions to travel during the COVID-19 outbreak. Further discussions of the findings were also highlighted to deliberate the implications of the study.