Investigating revisit intentions for the boutique hotels of penang-A UNESCO world heritage site

Abstract

The growth in the number and variety of boutique hotels in tourist destinations has stimulated a wide range of research studies. Nevertheless, within Malaysia, the area remains under studied. In 2008, George Town, a popular heritage destination in Malaysia, was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, and since then the number of boutique hotels and tourist arrivals have steadily grown. But, to date, there has been no investigation of the determinants of tourists’ revisit intention to boutique hotels. Such a study is timely and needed. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as its theoretical foundation, this study investigates the determinants of customers’ revisit intention for boutique hotels. The findings from 78 completed questionnaires indicate that attitude, subjective norm and customer satisfaction influence customers’ revisit intention. Surprisingly, the effect of perceived behavioural control and overall image upon customer revisit intention was not significant.