Stakeholder’s Perception on Malaysia’s Edu-Tourism Sustainability Performance


Abstract


This study shows that Edu-Tourism is manageable by considering various sustainability indicators that are identified from the evaluation of international students’ satisfaction. Differ from past sustainable tourism researches which usually investigate the tourism supply side of stakeholders (economics, social and environmental), this study adds value to the sustainable tourism literature by examining the tourism demand side of stakeholders (tourist satisfaction). Generally, Malaysia Edu-Tourism is operating within “potentially sustainable” category, improvements are needed to achieve “sustainable” status. Six indicators (reputation of university, perceived faculty academic competence, student-student interactions, perceived quality of faculty communications, climate and study environment, information availability) are moderately performed. Best performer being perceived quality of electronic communications and student-admin interaction. Worst performer being social links and geographic proximity. A quantitative research approach was used in this study where questionnaires were distributed for data collection. The sample size of the study consisted of 264 international students of different public and private sector universities. Structural Equation Model using SMARTPLS was used to identify significant indicators and then descriptive analysis was performed to evaluate sustainability of Malaysia Edu-Tourism sector. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and implications of the study along with suggestions for future research.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20705948v16n1p50

Keywords: Edu-Tourism; International Students; Study Destination Choice Satisfaction; Sustainability Performance; Stakeholder’s Perception; Sustainability Indicators

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