Staycation: A Domestic Wellness Tourism among Malaysian and Singaporean

Abstract

One phenomenon observed during the pandemic was increased staycation in most countries. This study focuses on wellness tourism through staycation in Malaysia and Singapore. A self-administered online questionnaire was completed by 109 Malaysians and 60 Singaporeans. Using IBM SPSS and SmartPLS, the determinants examined were the sense of presence, experience quality, hedonic motivation, and psychological detachment and mediated by family involvement towards the gratification of wellness tourism. This study contributes to theory and practices for Malaysia and Singapore's domestic tourism and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 12 for mental well-being and responsible consumption. Keywords: staycation, wellness tourism, use and gratification, domestic tourism eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i22.4156