The Effect of Cognitive Image, Affective Image and Internet Platform on Overall Destination Image of Bako National Park, Sarawak

• Main Author: Ellderea Grace, Chali
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2020
• Subjects: GV Recreation Leisure
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/33120/5/Ellderea%20Grace.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/33120/7/Ellderea%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/33120/

Destination image is an impression held by individuals towards a tourist attraction. It has been a powerful affect to tourist as they may start their holiday by doing informal analysis of several destinations that they are considering to visit. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of demographic, cognitive image, affective image and internet platform to visitor and non-visitor of Bako National Park. The method used for data collection was convenience sampling where a total of 210 questionnaires were distributed at Kuching City. The respondent of this study are the visitor (those who have visited) and non-visitor (those who have not visited) of Bako National Park. Research framework was developed based on past studies and each variable were explained thoroughly. Moreover, the effect between variables were identified and examined using t-test analysis, one-way ANOVA and stepwise regression. The findings indicated that only several variables have significant effect to overall destination image and the results differ between visitor and non-visitor. It is revealed that the type of tourist whether they are visitor or non-visitor had no effect to overall destination image. As for visitor, variables such as affective image and internet platform had significant effect to overall destination image. Non-visitor on the other hand showed contradict result whereby cognitive image and affective image had significant effect to overall destination image. The research findings not only will help tourism operators to improve their understanding towards destination image held by visitor and non-visitor but it will also benefit them in planning and executing their management and marketing operations effectively.