JOURNAL OF TOURISM, HOSPITALITY AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT (JTHEM)

HEALTH TOURISM IN CHINA: CONSUMER INSIGHTS AND MARKET POTENTIAL

Liu Ying, Norshamliza Chamhuri — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

With the development of the global economy, improving living conditions, and the increasing focus on health, health tourism has been rapidly developed worldwide. China is no exception. As medical standards and living conditions improve, the Chinese health tourism market is gradually emerging. Due to people's emphasis on a healthy lifestyle, the "total health" industry is entering a new rapid growth phase. As an emerging field that combines tourism with the "comprehensive health" industry, health tourism has significant development potential and a favourable market environment. However, despite the growth of the tourism sector in China, there remains a gap in understanding the behaviour of local tourists regarding health tourism. Most existing literature focuses on factors influencing Western tourists to come and visit China for health tourism. At the same time, less research has emphasised understanding domestic tourist choices. Consumers' decisions undoubtedly have a substantial impact on the industry as health tourism evolves. This research uses the primary data method to investigate factors impacting consumer decisions about health tourism in China. A questionnaire was given online, and this study received 133 responses. A factor study demonstrated that comprehensive medical quality and cost-related aspects influence Chinese consumers' decisions about health tourism in China. The findings also indicated that they are optimistic about the growth of China's health tourism industry. This study contributes to the literature by identifying key determinants of consumer decision-making in health tourism and provides practical insights for industry practitioners.

URBAN FOOD INSECURITY IN MALAYSIA: A QUALITATIVE PILOT STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD COPING STRATEGIES AND PERCEIVED NUTRITIONAL TRADE-OFFS

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Food insecurity is a growing challenge in Malaysia, forcing B40 households to constantly choose between their limited financial resources and daily food needs. In addition to assessing and refining the cultural suitability of the interview guide, this pilot study explored the coping strategies used by urban households to navigate food insecurity and perceived dietary trade-offs. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with two male household heads from contrasting urban contexts, namely Kuching, Sarawak, and Shah Alam, Selangor. The data were analysed using thematic analysis, resulting in three main themes and distinct coping behaviours. One household relied on internalised coping, such as rationing and emotional suppression. In contrast, the other household adopted externally adaptive strategies, such as discount shopping and leveraging food assistance. In both cases, participants experienced a similar nutritional compromise, particularly in reduced meal quality and dietary variety. While these adjustments helped households stretch limited resources, they also raised concerns about hunger, perceived nutritional adequacy, and dietary variety. In addition to generating preliminary insights, the pilot study identified areas for refining the interview guide, particularly in relation to emotional burden, transport-related access, and perceived dietary trade-offs. Overall, this study offers preliminary policy insights by suggesting that food security interventions should consider household coping practices and emotional strain alongside affordability. Still, these suggestions need validation through larger-scale research.

SUSTAINABLE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ACCURACY OF EDIBLE BIRD’S NEST (EBN) PRODUCTION ESTIMATION IN SWIFTLET RANCHING

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

In Malaysia's swiftlet ranching, accurate estimation of edible bird's nest (EBN) production is crucial for both economic planning and sustainable management. However, obtaining precise yield estimation remains difficult due to the complex interactions between biological, environmental, structural, and management factors. This paper pinpoints and examines the main factors that have an impact on the precision of EBN production estimates in Malaysia. The research groups these factors into six areas: (1) environmental conditions, (2) swiftlet population behavior, (3) structural design, (4) management practices, (5) data systems, and (6) external policy factors. The paper combines results from previous research, industry reports, and field observations to create a conceptual framework that connects these areas to estimate accuracy. The analysis highlights that precision in environmental monitoring, consistency in management practices, and standardized data collection are key to making production predictions more reliable. This study contributes to the literature on technology-enabled agriculture and sustainable rural enterprise management by proposing a framework that predicts how environmental, population, structural, management, data quality, and policy factors influence the accuracy of edible bird’s nest (EBN) production estimation. These insights are important for improving yield forecasting, enhancing market transparency, and supporting more informed decision-making among industry players and policymakers.

RETAINING CULINARY TALENT: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ON MOTIVATION, CONTENTMENT, AND FORTITUDE

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Purpose The objective of this paper is to formulate and theorize on an integrated conceptual framework analyzing the effects of employee motivation attributes that include empowerment, physiological elements and work environment on retention of culinary professionals in four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia, with job contentment and job fortitude as mediators respectively. Design/Methodology/Approach A conceptual framework based on three theoretical perspectives will be formulated for the purpose of this study: Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Social Exchange Theory (SET). In order to validate the framework developed in the conceptual phase of the paper, a cross-sectional design of quantitative nature will be used with structured questionnaire data collected from culinary professionals at the level of Chef de Partie and higher in four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia. Expected findings The findings of the study will indicate the way in which relationships exist among the variables such as motivation attribute dimensions and job contentment, job contentment and job fortitude and job fortitude and culinary professional retention. The sequential mediating effect will help determine if the two mediators indeed function as psychological mechanisms in translating the antecedent motivations to retention behavior. Originality/Value The current paper will contribute to literature in three ways. Firstly, job contentment and job fortitude as mediating constructs have not been fully explored. Secondly, joint applications of JD-R, SDT and SET in the context of culinary retention in Malaysia are expected. Thirdly, the framework developed will help hospitality managers and policy makers to develop better retention strategies.

DOES EMOTION MATTER? GEN Z’S AUGMENTED REALITY INTENTION IN TOURISM

Yip Yen San, Tang Siu Eng, Lim Yong Hooi, Chow Kean Hoong — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Digital transformation is changing how tourists search for destinations, and one of the most compelling tools is Augmented Reality (AR), which combines the physical with the digital to form the immersion of phygital tourism experiences. However, even with significant technological improvements, AR in tourism has not been widely adopted, and it can be assumed that the current models fail to include the essential emotional aspects that can affect the behaviour of users. Thus, using Technology Acceptance Model as the theoretical foundation, this study incorporates perceived enjoyment as an intermediate emotional factor between cognitive (usefulness and ease of use) and psychological (self-efficacy) antecedents to intention of tourists in using AR. A questionnaire was used to collect data from Generation Z travellers and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The results indicate that enjoyment is a major facilitator of perceived usefulness, confidence, ease of use, and behavioural intention.

YOUTH AND CRUISE TOURISM: BEHAVIORAL DRIVERS AND MARKET POTENTIAL IN MALAYSIA

Munira Mhd Rashid, Muhammad Efran Azrai Jasni, Kalsitinoor Set, Anis Abd Razak — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

The study addresses the underexplored area of youth participation in cruise tourism, particularly in Southeast Asia. It employs the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate Malaysian youths' intentions to experience cruise tourism. This study also seeks to measure the relationship between attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavior control towards the intention to experience cruise tourism. This study adopted a quantitative method of online questionnaire survey and multiple regression analysis was used to test the model. Purposive sampling survey method was used and youth categories which range ages from 18 to 30 in Malaysia were selected. The findings reveal that all variables are significant, and attitude has the most significant relationship to the youth's intention to experience cruise tourism. The results also show youth in Malaysia have a high level of intention to experience cruise tourism. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on cruise tourism from the perspective of youth. The findings of the study will be beneficial for the tourism stakeholders in the planning to promote the cruise tourism industry in Malaysia, particularly to the youth generation.

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEUM TOURISM: A PRISMA-BASED BIBLIOMETRIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SCOPUS-INDEXED LITERATURE (1992–2026)

Jianzhen Liang, Tse Guan Tan, Daeng Haliza Daeng Jamal — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This study maps the scientific production on immersive technologies in cultural heritage and museum tourism from 1992 to 2026, identifying the most productive sources, authors, affiliations, countries, subject areas and funding sponsors and tracing the field’s temporal evolution. Using the Scopus database, data were extracted on 31 March 2026 through a Boolean query combining immersive-technology descriptors (virtual, augmented and mixed reality; virtual and digital museums) with heritage and museum terms, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. After retracted items, errata, duplicates and off-topic records were removed and the corpus was filtered by document type and language, 940 English-language journal articles were retained and analysed across seven dimensions using the Scopus “Analyze results” tool. The field shows sustained growth, from a single article in 1992 to 161 in 2025, with the transformative phase from 2017 onward accounting for 81.7% of output. The Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage was the most prolific outlet (40 articles) and Puritat, K. the most productive author (13 articles), while Kyung Hee University led the affiliation ranking (15 articles). China was the leading contributor (187 articles), ahead of the United Kingdom (102) and Italy (100), and Computer Science (530) and Social Sciences (376) were the dominant subject areas. The European Commission (20 articles) was the principal funding sponsor. Building on these patterns, the study proposes a research agenda of eight thematic areas. Overall, the field has developed into a sustained, interdisciplinary domain with a dual computing-humanities identity and a geographically diverse contributor base, findings that can help early-career researchers, heritage practitioners and funding agencies identify suitable venues, partners and priority areas for immersive heritage research.

STAKEHOLDER READINESS IN MUSLIM FRIENDLY CULTURAL TOURISM

Nurfatin Adila Md Diton, Lukman Hakim Mahamod, Mazni Saad — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Islamic tourism is embedded within the socio-cultural fabric of society, requiring development strategies that reflect both tangible and intangible cultural dimensions. This study aims to assess stakeholder readiness to comply with Muslim-Friendly Cultural Tourism (MFCT) guidelines in Malaysia, thereby evaluating the feasibility of integrating Muslim-Friendly Tourism (MFT) principles into cultural tourism practices. A quantitative research design was employed, drawing on descriptive statistical analysis and ANOVA. Data were collected from 200 tour operators to examine their awareness, preparedness, and compliance with MFCT guidelines. The results indicate that MFCT implementation is feasible in Perlis, supported by strong stakeholder awareness and readiness. Readiness was categorised into five dimensions: syariah compliance, provision of halal food, availability of prayer facilities, delivery of Islamic services, and gender separation measures. These categories highlight the extent to which tourism stakeholders are prepared to align with MFCT principles. The findings underscore the potential for MFCT to enhance Malaysia’s positioning as a leading global destination for Muslim-Friendly Tourism. Effective implementation requires addressing governance challenges, particularly the fragmented issuance of fatwas by State Mufti Departments, improving service provider knowledge of MFT principles, and ensuring the maintenance of cultural heritage sites. This study concludes that MFCT guidelines can be effectively implemented among tourism stakeholders in Perlis, contributing to Malaysia’s broader aspiration to strengthen its global reputation in Muslim-Friendly Tourism. By situating cultural tourism within the framework of Islamic values, MFCT offers a strategic pathway for sustainable tourism development and enriches the cultural experience for Muslim travellers.

DO DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS DRIVE CARBON EMISSIONS? EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

Nabila Ahmad, Hafizah Hammad Ahmad Khan, Noor Zahirah Mohd Sidek — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Malaysia’s ongoing demographic transition, marked by changing population growth and rising life expectancy, has important implications for environmental sustainability, particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Despite continued economic development, managing CO₂ emissions remains a critical policy challenge in the country. This study investigates the impact of population growth and life expectancy on CO₂ emissions in Malaysia using the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) theory. Employing annual time-series data and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the findings reveal a long-run relationship between demographic factors and CO₂ emissions. The results indicate that population growth is negatively associated with CO₂ emissions, which may reflect Malaysia’s shift toward an aging population with lower consumption intensity, as well as the effectiveness of environmental policies aimed at reducing emissions. In contrast, life expectancy is positively associated with CO₂ emissions, suggesting that longer lifespans contribute to greater cumulative energy use and environmental pressure over time. These findings highlight the complex role of demographic change in shaping environmental outcomes. From a policy perspective, efforts should focus on promoting sustainable consumption patterns, particularly among older populations, alongside strengthening green technology adoption and energy efficiency initiatives. Future research is recommended to incorporate age structure, gender-specific life expectancy, and sectoral emissions to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the demographic-environmental nexus in Malaysia.

INFLUENCE OF NEW MEDIA ON LANGKAWI AS A HERITAGE DESTINATION

Yang Yashu, Ahmad Syarafuddin Shamsul Amri, Rozzana Ihsanuddin, Noraihan Mohamad — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This paper is focused on the impact of new media on the intention of tourists to visit Langkawi as a heritage site. The impact of social media, online travel reviews (OTR), and short video on the travel intention of the tourists will be analysed in this study. Quantitative methodology was used for this research with the use of data collected from tourists who have been to or are going to go to Langkawi and interact with new media. The result obtained through multiple regression analysis shows that social media, OTR, and short video platforms increase the travel intention. Also, it has been observed that the effect of OTR is the most among other variables. 45.9% variance in travel intention has been explained by the model with no presence of any multicollinearity.

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND GREEN BEHAVIOUR AMONG MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Nurul Zaharatullaili Rohizan, Suziana Hassan, Devika Krishnan, Raudha Md Ramli — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Environmental awareness and sustainability behaviour play an important role in addressing environmental challenges and promoting long-term environmental sustainability. Within higher education, university students play a critical role in shaping future sustainability practices and long-term environmental outcomes. Despite increasing attention to sustainability, limited empirical studies have examined thecombined effects of environmental knowledge, awareness, and attitudes on green behaviour among Malaysian university students. This study examines the level of environmental knowledge, awareness, and attitudes and analyse their influence on green behaviour. This study employed a quantitative method involving 385 students from selected Malaysian Public Universities listed in the UI Green Metric World University Rankings. The questionnaire measured environmental knowledge, environmental awareness, green behaviour and sustainable consumption using a five-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics, including descriptive analysis, reliability testing, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The results indicate high levels of environmental knowledge, attitude and awareness among students (mean range = 4.25–4.32), while Pearson correlation analysis reveals a strong positive relationship between environmental awareness and green behaviour (r = 0.785, p < 0.001). Multiple regression results show that environmental knowledge (β = 0.203, p < 0.001), environmental attitude (β = 0.237, p < 0.001) and environmental awareness (β = 0.446, p < 0.001) significantly predict green behaviour, with environmental awareness emerging as the strongest determinant. This indicates that environmental awareness plays a more significant role than knowledge in influencing sustainable behaviour. These findings imply that strengthening environmental awareness initiatives, sustainability education and green campus policies can significantly enhance environmentally responsible practices among students. This study contributes by identifying environmental awareness as the strongest determinant of green behaviour in higher education contexts. Practically, the findings inform the design of more effective sustainability initiatives by emphasising awareness-driven strategies and institutional support to promote consistent pro-environmental behaviour.

EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION PRACTICES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT

Siti Syarina Abdul Khalid, Azrul Azizi Amirrul, Nurul Safaniza Che Ani — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This chronological literature review examines the evolution of communication practices in event management. Despite this growth, the literature remains fragmented across disciplinary boundaries, making it difficult to trace how communication functions in event management have developed over time and how key thematic shifts have shaped the field. To address this gap, the study applied a systematic advanced search strategy using the Scopus database, guided by the principal keywords event management, communication, and event marketing. The search and screening process produced a final dataset of 96 primary studies for detailed review and synthesis. For chronological interpretation, the selected studies were organised into four analytical phases: Emergent Foundations (1994-2008), Conceptual Development (2009-2015), Digital Expansion and Consolidation (2016-2019), and Data-Driven and Post-Pandemic Transformation (2020-2026). The review revealed that early studies primarily approached communication as a supporting tool for coordination, promotion, and stakeholder contact, while the second phase reflected broader conceptual engagement with public relations, community participation, branding, and event learning. The third phase demonstrated a marked shift towards digital interaction, user-generated content, online engagement, and technology-supported communication practices. In the most recent phase, communication became increasingly data-driven, strategic, and integrated with crisis response, sustainability, Artificial Intelligence (AI), platformisation, and adaptive governance. Overall, the findings indicate that communication in event management has evolved from a largely operational function into a multidimensional strategic capability that shapes stakeholder relations, event experience, legitimacy, and long-term resilience. This review contributes a structured temporal understanding of the field and offers a foundation for future research on communication innovation, event sustainability, and digitally mediated stakeholder engagement.

FROM ONLINE REVIEWS TO SERVICE GOVERNANCE: A REVIEW OF SERVICE QUALITY RESEARCH IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM

Zhang Juan , Choo Wei Chong , Yee Choy Leong , Lin Yihuan , Zhou Xuan — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Standard bibliometric summaries no longer capture what online review research in hospitality and tourism is actually doing — the corpus has grown too large and internally varied for that. Applied to a Scopus corpus of 243 articles, bibliometric mapping and latent Dirichlet allocation (K = 8) recover four functional domains: managerial response, experience evaluation, computational analytics, and contextual extension. These domains do not carry equal influence. T6 (Service failure and recovery) leads the taxonomy with 13.61% prevalence and a citation impact of 40.93; T4 (NLP/LLM-enabled review understanding) has expanded in recent visibility but carries the lowest impact score in the set (28.25). The field is not simply becoming more technological—it is becoming more stratified, with a durable managerial core sitting alongside an experimental analytics layer. A literature-derived governance framework links these thematic streams to monitoring signals, response priorities, and evaluation metrics. The framework is not a field-tested operational model, but it makes explicit a logic for service quality governance that the accumulated evidence already supports.

A REVIEW OF DOUYIN TOURISM LIVE-STREAMING MARKETING

Lin Xiaorui, Amily Fikry — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

With the rapid development of live streaming and short-video platforms, live-streaming marketing has become an increasingly important tool in digital tourism marketing. Compared with traditional promotional approaches, it enables real-time destination presentation, immersive visual storytelling, and interactive communication that may reduce information asymmetry and enhance tourist engagement. As China’s leading short-video and live-streaming platform, Douyin (TikTok) has significantly reshaped tourism content dissemination through algorithm-driven recommendation, high-frequency interaction, and emotionally engaging audiovisual formats. However, existing research on tourism live-streaming marketing remains fragmented, often focusing primarily on consumer responses while overlooking the broader value mechanisms across multiple stakeholders. This article synthesizes prior research from tourism digital marketing, social media engagement, and online trust perspectives to examine the value mechanisms of Douyin tourism live-streaming from a multi-subject perspective, including tourism marketers, tourists, content creators, and platform governance. The review highlights how live-streaming facilitates destination image construction, enhances tourist decision support, supports content monetization and professionalization, and generates cross-stakeholder value co-creation. It further discusses practical implications for destination marketing strategy, content design, and sustainable platform governance, and outlines future research directions emphasizing theoretical integration and dynamic interaction analysis.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TRAVEL CHALLENGES AMONG ELDERLY TRAVELLERS IN CHINA AND MALAYSIA

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

With the ageing of global populations, elderly tourism has become a prominent and expanding industry segment, especially in Asia. This study aims to do a comparative analysis of the challenges encountered by older travellers in China and Malaysia, two nations that are undergoing significant demographic transitions towards an ageing population. Employing a qualitative research approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were performed with 20 older travellers (10 from each nation) to investigate their travel experiences and challenges. Research indicates common challenges including physical and health constraints, accessibility barriers, technological unfamiliarity, susceptibility to frauds, and nuanced instances of age discrimination. Notable distinctions were observed: Malaysian respondents prioritised religious and nutritional requirements, whereas Chinese participants underscored the significance of rest intervals and pacing. The study offers practical insights for governments, tourism providers, and destination managers to tackle these difficulties and create inclusive, safe, and enjoyable travel experiences for elderly travellers.

FOOD-RELATED WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG STREET FOOD MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS: A PILOT STUDY IN ALOR GAJAH, MELAKA

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Street food vending is an important micro-entrepreneurial activity in Malaysia, providing ready-to-eat meals to communities while creating unique challenges in managing food-related waste. This pilot study explored current food waste management practices among street food vendors in Alor Gajah, Melaka, focusing on waste generation, handling, and disposal. Observations and structured interviews revealed that vendors operate under different business models, including snack resellers, food preparers, and beverage sellers, each producing distinct types and volumes of waste. Most vendors rely on linear disposal methods such as municipal bins or plastic bags, with little segregation, reuse, or recycling. Improper practices, including pouring excess beverages into drains and repeated reuse of cooking oil, highlight operational challenges and potential health risks. Some vendors demonstrate emerging sustainable practices such as sales forecasting, inventory control, and donation of unsold food, but these are primarily motivated by cost reduction rather than environmental concern. The study highlights a gap between current practices and circular waste management principles, emphasizing the need for practical interventions, guidance, and infrastructure to help vendors manage food-related waste effectively while maintaining viable micro-business operation.

WHAT DRIVES ESG IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY： A BIBLIOMETRIC AND THEMATIC REVIEW

Xin Shen, Azmawani Abd Rahman, Anuar Shah Bali Mahomed — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research has expanded rapidly in tourism and hospitality, yet the antecedents of ESG remain conceptually fragmented. This review addresses that gap through a combined bibliometric and thematic approach. Drawing on 137 Scopus articles and a focused thematic sample of 26 studies, it maps the intellectual structure of ESG antecedent research and synthesizes the main drivers of ESG development. The findings show that the field remains rooted in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder theory, governance, and performance-related concerns, while antecedent-focused work is only beginning to consolidate. Five antecedent clusters are identified: digitalization and technology enabled capacities; internal organizational capabilities, leadership, and people systems; governance, strategic orientation, and firm-level design; stakeholder, market, and institutional pressures; and place-based governance, community embeddedness, and societal innovation. Taken together, these clusters show that ESG in tourism and hospitality is shaped by interacting organizational, strategic, technological, institutional, and socially embedded conditions rather than by a single explanatory pathway. The review advances a more explanatory understanding of ESG and outlines priorities for future research.

CONFIGURATIONAL PATHWAYS TO FRUIT FARMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: AN FSQCA APPROACH

Ding Xiaodong, Wu Yi, Shen Shurong, Liu Nannan, Faiz Izwan Anuar — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Against the background of rural revitalization, rural tourism based on distinctive agricultural resources has emerged as an important pathway for cultivating new rural industries and business models. As a form of specialty agriculture, fruit farming integrates production, ecological, landscape, and experiential functions. However, existing studies have largely focused on tourists or general farming households, with limited attention to the complex mechanisms shaping fruit farmers' willingness to participate in rural tourism development. Based on the SOR framework and 377 valid questionnaires, this study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how resource environment perception, policy environment perception, expected benefits, and perceived behavioural control jointly shape such willingness. The results indicate that no single condition constitutes a necessary condition for either high or non-high willingness. Three configurations leading to high willingness and four configurations leading to non-high willingness are identified, revealing clear causal asymmetry. The findings demonstrate that fruit farmers' willingness is jointly shaped by multiple conditions rather than any single factor. Accordingly, policy efforts should focus on strengthening resource foundations, improving policy support, enhancing expected benefits, and promoting capability development.

DETERMINANT OF HOUSEHOLD WASTE SEPARATION BEHAVIOUR IN MALAYSIA: A CONCEPTUAL VIEW

Mohamad Haziq Hazmi Hamdan, Devika Krishnan, Suziana Hassan — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This study helps to investigate the factors that influence the household’s waste separation behaviour among households in Johor. Despite the act that has been introduced, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672), the rapid development and urbanization that was caused by the development and urbanization, and the compliance among households have been seen to remain low, which leads to a greater dependency and environmental impact. With the presence of the Theory of Planned behaviour, this study manages to highlight the attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control as key determinants that influence the public response toward waste separation. Awareness and current practices and strategies to improve can be assessed with the presence of this study to improve waste separation among households in Johor. The study helps identify the behavioural and contextual drivers influencing compliance, providing policymakers and educators with insights to guide and develop effective waste management strategies and campaigns that enhance awareness and strengthen enforcement, thereby supporting the state’s transition toward a cleaner and more sustainable environment.

REVISITING MUSLIM-FRIENDLY HOSPITALITY: A TPB-BASED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF HALAL VALUE, TOURIST SATISFACTION, AND REVISIT INTENTION

Atikahambar Yusni, Asnani Bahari, Mohamad Fazali Ghazali, Mohd Farid Abd Latib — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

The global Muslim tourism market continues to expand rapidly, intensifying the need for deeper insights into value creation within Muslim-friendly hospitality (MFH). This conceptual study develops a framework grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), positioning halal value as a belief-based antecedent, tourist satisfaction as an evaluative attitude, and revisit intention as behavioural intention. Unlike prior approaches that treat halal attributes as operational requirements or narrow subdimensions of Muslim Tourist Perceived Value (MTPV), this paper reconceptualizes halal value as a higher-order experiential construct encompassing both Islamic physical attributes—such as halal food, prayer facilities, and Muslim-friendly amenities—and Islamic non-physical attributes, including trust, ethical service, spiritual assurance, and modest hospitality interactions. The proposed model suggests that halal value exerts both a direct influence on revisit intention and an indirect effect mediated through tourist satisfaction. Theoretically, the study extends TPB into Islamic hospitality by elevating halal value to a strategic determinant of loyalty formation, thereby offering a parsimonious yet contextually relevant explanation of Muslim tourist behaviour. Practically, the framework provides guidance for MFH operators to move beyond certification-based compliance toward integrated halal experiences that foster trust, comfort, satisfaction, and repeat visitation. By advancing halal value as a multidimensional experiential driver of loyalty, this study contributes to the growing discourse on Islamic hospitality and tourism. It offers both scholarly insights into the extension of TPB and managerial implications for enhancing customer satisfaction and strengthening revisit intention in Muslim-friendly hotels.

CATALYSING GREEN ENERGY IN ASIA: THE IMPACT OF GREEN INVESTMENT AND GREEN ECONOMIC GROWTH

Yan-Teng Tan, Chia-Guan Keh, Pei-Tha Gan — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

In recent years, a growing body of empirical evidence has documented the role of green energy in facilitating the transition to low-carbon development and mitigating environmental degradation. To advance green energy development across Asian countries, this study investigates how green investment and green economic growth influence green energy consumption over the period of 2010 to 2021. Adopting generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators, the empirical results reveal that green investment and green growth are positive and statistically significant determinants of green energy. This study contributes to the formulation of informed and effective policy measures aimed at strengthening the green energy sector and support long-term sustainable development goals. Empirical evidence suggests that translating green development gains into measurable outcomes is associated with a stronger contribution of green investment and green economic growth to the expansion of the green energy sector.

AGRO-TOURISM AS A CATALYST FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: A CAPABILITY APPROACH ANALYSIS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN PENANG, MALAYSIA

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Agro tourism is an environmentally responsible form of tourism that integrates recreational and cultural experiences with agricultural activities, offering visitors authentic engagement with rural life. It has emerged as an important strategy for sustainable development by generating economic opportunities, strengthening social cohesion, and promoting environmental sustainability, particularly in rural contexts. While many existing studies emphasise the financial benefits of agro tourism for local populations, limited research has examined its non-financial impacts, particularly how it enables or constrains community well-being. This dimension can be better understood through the Capability Approach, which focuses on individuals’ freedoms and real opportunities to live the kinds of lives they value. Addressing this gap, the present study explores local community perspectives on the impacts of agro-tourism in Kampung Agong Penaga, Penang, a village that has recently gained prominence as a popular agro-tourism destination. This qualitative study employed semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 local residents, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis to capture participants’ experiences and lived realities. The findings indicate that agro tourism has enhanced community well-being by generating employment and business opportunities, supporting cultural exchange and preservation, expanding educational exposure, and encouraging infrastructure development. These outcomes demonstrate that agro tourism can improve quality of life when communities are able to convert available opportunities into valued functioning. From a capability approach perspective, local well-being was strengthened as residents exercised their agency to transform tourism-related resources into meaningful benefits. The study proposes several recommendations to enhance agro-tourism’s effectiveness, including strengthening national agricultural policies through greater community inclusion in planning processes. Overall, the study highlights agro-tourism’s potential as a sustainable rural development strategy and contributes to the broader literature on inclusive and participatory tourism governance.

DIGITAL MARKETING ROLES IN CREATING AWARENESS IN PRESERVING CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Digital marketing is now an important tool for preserving and promoting cultural heritage sites. It helps increase global visibility and engagement using social media, content marketing and search engine optimization. However, cultural heritage sites frequently struggle to attract visitors, generate revenue, and adapt to modern management practices. Digital marketing has risen to the forefront of tourism promotion, while content marketing, social media and search engine optimization are critical for cultural heritage site preservation. Despite the increasing importance of digital platforms in modern communications, there remains a gap in knowledge regarding how these tools can be optimally utilized to raise awareness among visitors and foster a sense of responsibility towards cultural heritage preservation. This research aims to shed light on digital marketing roles in creating awareness in preserving cultural heritage sites in the context of content marketing, social media and search engine optimization. This study was conducted among Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur population using online questionnaires. 385 students responded to the questionnaire. A quantitative approach is used for this research by distributing online questionnaires to collect data from respondents. The findings showed that there are significant relationships between content marketing, social media and search engine optimization in creating awareness in preservation of cultural heritage sites. These findings are hoped to help all the generations to preserve cultural heritage sites.