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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the tourism life cycle of Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The paper seeks to investigate the stages of life cycle that the island has passed through and at what stage the island is in today. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle model as the research framework to describe the characteristics of each stage of the island’s tourism life cycle and determine the time scale of the stages. The evidence presented in the stages is derived from secondary sources dating from 1642 to present. Findings – The findings indicate that the tourism life cycle in Langkawi Island has undergone four stages of development and that it is currently in the consolidation stage. Numerous characteristics suggested by Butler’s model for each stage are clearly discernible in the island’s tourism growth. The government serves as the major player and catalyst for tourism expansion in the island from one stage to the next. Practical implications – It is hoped that the paper will contribute to a better understanding of how tourism and its market have evolved in Langkawi Island. The paper also provides insights on how future planning should be directed in more sustainable and responsible ways to position the island. Originality/value – The paper delivers a comprehensive understanding on the tourism developmental process of Langkawi Island, besides facilitating the understanding of major fundamental causes and conditions and the accompanying transition in the stages. The paper also bridges the gaps in knowledge addressed in similar previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to study the senior travellers' perception on the importance and performance of Penang's tourism attributes. To do so, the effect of the importance and performance of such attributes on senior tourists' overall satisfaction was also investigated. The perception was assessed by applying importance-performance analysis, whereas its effects were evaluated using partial least squares -structural equation modelling. A total of 12 attributes were chosen in order to evaluate the travellers' satisfaction level towards Penang as a tourist destination. The analysis shows that the senior travellers rated 'accessibility to the destination', and 'local transport services' as the most important attributes, requiring further concentration and improvement. These features ranked as important but achieving a satisfactory level of performance was also discovered. The result of the partial least squares analysis confirmed the effects of both importance and performance of the selected attributes on senior tourists' overall satisfaction.

The increasing demand of holidaymakers for vacations in Malaysian Island destinations has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of coastal resorts. To explain the growth of coastal resorts, the approach of the life cycle model by Butler [(1980). The concept of a tourist area life cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources. The Canadian Geographer, 24(1), 5-12] is adopted. This paper describes the life cycle of coastal resorts in Tioman Island by providing the evidences of historical and fieldwork data from the start of the 1890s up to the present. The findings demonstrate that tourism has resulted in substantial changes in the island's coastal resorts. The resorts in the island have passed through subsequently four stages of development as suggested in Butler's model and are currently in the consolidation stage. In each of the stage, the changes in resort morphology and types of tourist visitation are evident. Government and private incentives are the two main factors that stimulate the transformation of the resorts from one stage to the next.