Psychographic insights from a Malaysia tourism industry

Abstract

An investigation of Malaysia tourism development was conducted to identify the psychographic character of travellers in each phase of development. Resulted from analysing the secondary data (obtained from government archives, local newspapers and journals) and informal conversation with the government experts revealed that from the First until the Fifth Plan, the Malaysia tourism industry appealed mostly to allocentric and near allocentric travellers. As the demand increase and destination development become more tourist-oriented, the destination attracted the mid-centric tourist (in Sixth to Seventh Plans). Finally, in the Eighth and Ninth Plans, it appealed more to the psychocentric tourist than the allocentric tourist. The results indicate qualified support for Plog’s psycographic model within a country setting.