ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Mabul Island is a popular diving site for divers, with its main appeal of marine life as one of the most visited islands in Malaysia. If the island is not protected from tourist activities, its image as a tourist destination may deteriorate. This research focuses on measuring the tourism destination competitiveness by evaluating the sustainable features of Mabul Island using Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). The aim is to identify the most essential features of Mabul and evaluate its performance. The survey questionnaires were distributed to tourists who visited Mabul Island between 2017 and February 2020. Six (6) attributes that represent tourism destination competitiveness (TDC); destination management, natural resources, quality service and safety, location and accessibility, E-business, and sustainable tourism were tested. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation and later, paired t-tests were employed to examine the statistical differences between the means of importance and performance. Only two variables; locality and accessibility, and E-business indicated a statistical significance between importance and performance rated by respondents. The mean values were also plotted into the IPA matrix to visually present the results based on four (4) quadrants: Sustainable tourism is the only attribute in the ‘keep up the good work’ quadrant; Destination management, natural resources, and quality service and safety are in the ‘low priority’ quadrant; Location locality and accessibility is in ‘concentrate here’ quadrant; E-business is plotted in ‘possible overkill’ quadrant. These findings are the valuable information for Sabah Tourism and relevant authorities to enhance Mabul Island and ensure its competitiveness as a desired tourism destination in Malaysia. This study suggested tourism policymakers and destination managers to do necessary monitoring and assessment on a regular basis to preserve the island for tourism purposes.
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In-Text Citation: (Sundram & Gani, 2022)
To Cite this Article: Sundram, S. D., & Gani, A. A. (2022). Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) on Tourism Destination Competitiveness in Mabul Island, Sabah. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(2), 110–129.
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