Malaysia Destination Image After Crisis Recovery: Factors Influencing Asian and European Tourists’ Visit Intention

Abstract

Destination crisis management has become important since tourists highly concern about their safety during travelling which indirectly impacted their perception and decision making. This study aims to identify the influential factors on Asian and European tourists, and to determine the role of destination image towards their visit intention after post-crises recovery. The segmentation is supported by three factors; physical factors, socio-psychological factors, and financial factors, with destination image as the mediator. Quantitative approach using paper-based questionnaire was conducted during data collection and 426 respondents were selected based on convenience sampling. Data analysis has indicated physical factors as the main factor that influenced tourist’s visit intention, while destination image significantly affected tourists’ visit intention and significantly mediated between the relationship of the factors and visit intention