Determinants of tourist perception towards responsible tourism: A study at Malacca world heritage site

The study aims to explore the perceptions of tourist both foreigner and local in term of cultural, experience and environment towards responsible tourism. The role of the government in implementing responsible tourism in Malacca as endorsed by UNESCO for world heritage site will be explored as well. The theoretical framework developed in this study comprised of cultural, experience and environment as independent variables, responsible tourism as dependent variable and government as the moderator. An analysis was conducted based on the questionnaire developed for 200 local and foreigner tourist who visit Malacca world heritage site. A hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that the government did not play an important role as a moderator in developing responsible tourism among the tourist. Tourists also perceived that cultural and environments were two important variables in responsible tourism while experience was not the indicator in describing responsible tourism. In conclusion, in order to improve the perception of tourist towards responsible tourism, the government needs to highlight their roles in terms of managing responsible tourism among tourist. Interpretations of results, implications and future research were also discussed.