Competitive Advantage of Geotourism Market in Malaysia: A Comparison among ASEAN Economies

Developing a scale for measuring influential factors towards geotourism development

“…A different set of factors was found to affect the motivation for visiting a geoheritage site, which includes geoheritage, culture and social responsibility, personal education and stimulation, rurality and exercise, accessibility and facilities and safety and security. This article corroborates the findings that geoheritage and culture (Gravari-Barbas 2018), social responsibility (Ehsan et al 2016), personal education and stimulation (Hose 2016), rurality and exercise (Reimold et al 2006;Stokes et al 2003) and accessibility and facilities (Phau et al 2013) are considered as some of the main motivational factors for visiting a geoheritage site.…”

“…Geotourism is a form of tourism that sustains and enhances the identity of a territory, by taking into consideration the territory's geology, environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the wellbeing of its local surrounding residents (European Geoparks Network 2011). Previous studies (Ehsan, Begum & Leman 2016;Ngwira 2015;Reimold, Whitfield & Wallmach 2006) concur that geotourism is a branch of sustainable tourism that can be used for poverty alleviation, geoconservation and the development of rural economies. Furthermore, this study adds to the tourism literature to identify African national parks such as the KNP as a public resource not only famed for its wildlife but also with the potential to be a geopark.…”

Potential and Challenges: Tourism Stakeholders’ Perceptions Towards Muslim Friendly Geotourism in Langkawi Uggp

“…Malaysian tourism has been positively impacted by the arrival of traveller's visits to the nature-based destination. Ehsan et al (2016) claim that there is a lot of opportunities for Malaysia to attract more inbound travellers. In Malaysia, Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark (LUGGp) is the first global geopark in Southeast Asia region to be recognized by the Global Geopark Network (GGN).…”