Toh Jen Ying, Khairil Wahidin Awang & Jamil Bojei
Abstract:
Global tourism movement has shown an increase over the past years. Historically, global travel is meant to be the prerogative of men but the women and travel phenomenon has slowly started to emerge. This study addresses the cultural values of West and Asia to understand the Asian perspective. Within South East Asia, Malaysia is one of the countries that is expected to have a steady growth in tourism. The specific trait in Generation Y which is technologically savvy makes the experience more enhancing, thus encouraging people to travel. This study investigates gen Y Malaysian women’s perceptions towards solo travelling. The qualitative approach was employed in this study and data were collected from Malaysian women aged 19 to 33 years old. In-depth interviews were used in data collection to identify the perceptions of Malaysian women and solo travelling trends. Findings indicate that the differences of West and Asia values are not a constraint for Malaysian women to travel. Instead, gen Y characteristics encourage women to travel with the convenience of technology advancement. Yet, the main concern of Malaysian women is safety. The implications of the findings are for tourism operators and marketeers getting an Asian perspective, particularly Malaysian women’s, on structuring marketing strategies that cater to the needs of different market segments.
Keywords: Consumer behaviour, decision-making, generation Y, Malaysian women, tourist motivation.