Perceived Values of Edu-tourism and Tourists’ Satisfaction: A Case Study on Madrasah Pengajian Ilmu

Edu-tourism is one of the developing tourism segments worldwide. Edu-tourism often takes place in universities and schools where participants engage in educational training and programs. The Madrasah Pengajian Ilmu Wahyu in Melaka has been established as a religious school focusing on Quran Hifz and Islamic religious teachings. The madrasah has long opened its doors to allow visitors to patronise and takes part in its educational programs which include typical religious classes as well as Sunnah recreational activities. This study was conducted in an attempt to assess two main objectives; the tourists perceived values of this program and to measure their satisfaction after participating in the program. The questionnaire was distributed to groups of tourists who visited the premise and participated in a week program. 75 questionnaires collected were then analysed to answer the objectives. The results indicated that functional values (establishment, price, service quality, image) are linked with satisfaction, alongside experiential (madrasah, activity) and social values. On the contrary, educational values were found not to be associated with satisfaction. Further analysis revealed that only functional values were found to be a significant predictor of the overall satisfaction of the tourists. Other aspects will require additional attention, in management and program development, should the madrasah wishes to expand its potential as a new tourism product for the market.


Introduction
The pattern of visiting other nation or state because of training is an advancing type of the tourism known as Edu-tourism.Edu-tourism involved international university studies programs, general the travel industry and grown-up study visits, and optional school understudies' movement just like trade programs.Edu-tourism is one of the developing segments of tourism and has drawn great consideration in the business, including tourism (Kamdi, Jamal & Anuar, 2018;Ankomah & Larson, 2000;Gallarza & Saura, 2006).Edu-tourism can be in the form of attending school trips, seminar vacations or abroad study courses and upskilling and training at education premises.Edu-tourism has an extensive scope, and it is believed this can add value towards tourism experiences.Malaysia has recognized Edutourism as one branch of tourism with a promising future for the industry (Chandrashekar & Ann, 2021).Edu-tourism programs and packages are being promoted in both public and private universities in Malaysia and it has been quite a successful initiative and gaining popularity (Bernama, 2019).It provides additional jobs for professionals and raises income as well.The Ministry of Tourism and Culture (MOTAC) sees this as a feasible opportunity to be extended to other educational premises including Madrasah or Pondok.Private religious schools like Madrasah are often faced with many issues within the operation and management of the institution.In many instances, these institutions are often faced with problems soliciting enough funds for operation.
The foundation of Madrasah or Pondok in Malaysia which was dated back to 18th Century AD provide an elective road to training and learning for students.It is viewed as one of the numerous types of instructive Islamic foundations which advocate the spread of Islam and has become a convention in nations like Malaysia and Indonesia.Its fundamental foundation was intended to deliver ulama' and Islamic researchers have now stretched out to going for strictly based instruction as well as coordinating into a standard educational plan.In this manner, these foundations are getting development consideration from pioneers and society and have advanced since with incorporated educational program and co-educational program.The Ministry of Tourism and Culture (MOTAC) Malaysia has announced its support to encourage the development and implementation of Edu-tourism in Madrasah and Pondok as part of enhancing the image of Malaysia as a prominent Muslim-friendly destination in Malaysia.They have collaborated with Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) to work on strategies incorporating these religious schools into Edu-tourism program.Among the strategies is to identify basic requirements for Edu tourism in madrasah and pondok (Malaymail, 26 Nov 2019).It is believed that the implementation of Edu-tourism packages in Madrasah would be a beneficial move for the institution.As it is believed this could be a possible way to address issues and challenges faced by this institution, including soliciting funding, and income earning.
The study was carried out to examine a specific program developed aimed at providing edu tourism by a madrasah in Melaka.The Madrasah 'Pondok Pengajian Ilmu Wahyu' located in Merlimau, Melaka was established in 2018 and led by Ustaz Noramin Said which provides facilities for accommodation and other recreation activities.There is a pool for swimming activities, horsing recreational activities as well as basic archery activities.Besides, the madrasah's nasyid team is often invited by the villagers to perform at religious gatherings.Nasyid, a type of Islamic devotional song is often performed during religious gatherings has become one of the social and co-curriculum activities in Madrasah.Apart from that, this madrasah also provides sessions of Islamic classes for the public and guest rooms are provided if needed.Recreation activities such as horse riding and archery are usually scheduled for the public who attended religious classes as recreational activities.Indirectly, the madrasah management has been planning and providing an education program with tourism elements, although it was never promoted as an Edu-tourism.The public is made known of such package availability at the madrasah through word of mouth.This provides an acceptable perimeter for this case study and research to be conducted.
This study intended to explore the tourists' perceived values and satisfaction with the Madrasah Edu-tourism package.The findings of this study were expected to shed some light and provide important preliminary considerations towards building a comprehensive program of Madrasah Edu-tourism in Malaysia.

Literature Review Edu Tourism and its Potential as a New Tourism Product
The changes in the tourism and education industries over the last decades have seen the convergence of these two industries with education facilitating mobility and learning becoming an important part of the tourist's experience.Educational tourism can be translated as moving people to places outside their residing areas for the purpose of acquiring knowledge (Ritchie et al., 2003;Abu Samah & Ahmadian, 2013).Educational tourism is an increasingly popular new trend in the global tourism industry.The concept of a wide range of educational tourism has been changing the concept of tourism itself, with a focus on studying new things, learning about other cultures, studying tours, or applying the learned skills.This is one of the most famous types of tourism activity for the past few years, for example, people travel to learn foreign languages.Due to the growing popularity of teaching and learning new knowledge, educational tourism is seen as a form of tourism that has the potential to grow at a high speed.The fundamentals of education and requirements of tourism are to be considered as an education refereeing to the benefits of tourism for the economy and community (Gupta & Dixit, 2021).It is believed that proper planning and execution of Edutourism will have considerable benefits towards the economy by providing employment and skills enhancement for teachers and students.
Given its potential as an emerging tourism product, unfortunately, educational tourism has generated little excitement to date (Lam et al., 2012) and much lesser in research pertaining to examining its values.Education tourism is beneficial for the host nation and host community.It has the potential for the development of the local community, region, and nation at large.It can provide global exposure to the host destination, and a niche to explore hidden areas of that destination.It can encourage investment and if properly managed and organized, it can contribute to a much larger picture with employment opportunities, entrepreneur development and enhanced skills among practitioners (Tomasi et al., 2020).

The Perceived Values of Edu-tourism
Perceived value is important and considered central towards understanding how tourists value tourism products and services.Zeithalm (1998) indicated that perceived value is the overall assessment of a product based on what the customer received.The perceived value is regarded as much more than just monetary value (Choi et al., 2015) as it encapsulates social, emotional and other non-monetary values in tourism settings.Functional value can be described as the core characteristics of the goods that can fulfil the consumer or user's practical needs.It represents the utilitarian assessment on the touristic experiences and monetary value for the price charged (Sweeney et al., 1999).Consistent with cognitive reasoning, functional value is grounded in the theory of utility.Similarly, social value is linked to a user image with which consumers wish to be aligned associated with consumption (Lee et al., 2011).In the context of the tourism industry, where tourists will interact highly with the service providers, community and other tourists during consumption, social values are seen as crucial in measuring the overall value of the tourism product.The idea of perceived value is often poorly differentiated from other related constructs such as values, utility, fee, and quality.In spite of the large research on those constructs, the relationships among them remain doubtful, especially relating to new tourism products or segments.Some authors have advised that perceived satisfaction is an antecedent that has a nice effect on perceived value.According to Zulfikar and Mayvita (2018) In figuring out the perceived value of products, customers tend to consider functional value indicators extra than different indicators like social value, emotional value, and economical value.Malihah and Setiyorini (2017) stated that in assessing values in tourism products, research has shown how it has been developed into a mature level, and indicated by the multi, inter, and trans subject procedures.As a result, approaches may be applied by means of using Edu tourism activities.
It is important to develop and plan tourism products that meet the target market's preferences.In the case of Edu-tourism, the important aspect is not just the educational element, but it includes learning new skills in a unique environment.The Pondok Pengajian Wahyu is a religious school that focuses on providing religious education, concentrating on the Qur'an Hifz, perfecting the prayers, reciting the Quran and at the same time, providing recreational activities that are encouraged in the Islamic lifestyle.Sunnah sports such as swimming, archery, and horse riding, are seen as activities that can instil good spirits, build up confidence level and encourage good interpersonal skills.Other than that, the teachers are not only to educate but also instill value-oriented learning.Teachers give significant influence in the education world of education physically and spiritually since they are students' reference for values and norms of religion.Teachers not only transfer knowledge and skills but plant and establishment of certain values in the students.Besides that, Madrasah prepared the students to become independent and selfcultivate.Madrasah has successfully grown-up independent students since they are away from home almost all the time moulding them as self-disciplined independent problem solvers.
It has been established that some "modern religious school" has their own business unit (entrepreneurial institutions) to support their independence of the cottage which include Goat Farm, Cattle farms, Mini Market, Homestay, Rental of lodging for the residents of guardian as well as a bookshop.With all the entrepreneur opportunities available, the madrasah may provide an attitude of independence to the students whereby require them to carry out their own duties and responsibilities, at the same time learning new skills.Indirectly, the madrasah not only provides knowledge but skill to operate a business that may attract customers.

Methodology
This study aimed to assess tourists' perceived value; by investigating on the functional and educational values of Edu-tourism packages in madrasah.Questionnaires were distributed for two weeks in February 2020 at the premise, during which two groups of visitors were scheduled to visit and stay at the madrasah.They were provided with accommodation and full access to the facilities at the madrasah.These groups of students, teachers, and residents were mainly residing in and around Melaka.Convenience sampling was employed, and the questionnaire was distributed during the last day of their stay at the madrasah.During their stay at the madrasah, they participated in daily activities including recitation of the Qur'an sessions in the morning, congregational prayers, public religious classes, and recreational activities in the evening.Out of 100 questionnaires distributed, only 75 were found to be usable for analysis.The sample should be adequate for analysis due to these reasons: i) It is a preliminary study to explore the perceived values in the Edu tourism industry, especially in the madrasah/Pondok setting.ii) Edu tourism industry is still in its infancy with regards to its developments in recent years iii) It is not the main purpose to generalize the findings to a broad population but just to provide some insights on the phenomenon pertaining to the introduction of Edutourism programs in madrasah.
Questionnaires were developed based on Kamdi et al (2018) study conducted to measure Edu-tourists perceived value of Edu-tourism in Malaysia.The questionnaire consisted of two sections, section A was about demographic characteristics and section B on perceived value; functional value and educational value, while section C was about measuring their satisfaction.A 5 point-Likert Scale was used for the instrument.For Sections B and C; the scales range from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree.A pilot study was conducted with 30 respondents prior to the data collection period.As a result of the pilot test, a few changes were made in line with the terminology and consistency.In assessing the resolute nature of the evaluation instrument, a Cronbach's alpha estimate of 0.902 was obtained.This alpha quality is considered commendable and a not too poor sign of integrity in the building.Analyses were performed using SPSS Version 25.Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the sample of collected observations and measurements while the Pearson Correlation Coefficient was conducted to assess the relationship between the perceived value and tourists' satisfaction.The following were the hypothesis tested for the study: H1= A significant positive correlation exists between functional values and satisfaction.H2= A significant positive correlation exists between educational values and satisfaction.H3= A significant positive correlation exists between experiential values and satisfaction.H4= A significant positive correlation exists between social values and satisfaction.

Findings Demographic Profiles of Respondents
The majority of the respondents were male which contribute to 86.7% and most were young adults ranging from 18-24 years old (84%).10.7% were aged 25-34 and the remaining were 35 years and above (5.3%).In terms of marital status, the majority were single (93.8%) and were university graduates (97.3%).

A Descriptive Analysis of Constructs and the Dimension of Perceived Values on Edu Tourism in Madrasah
Respondents were asked to rate their agreement with each of the statements corresponding to the independent variables tested.The tables below indicated how each statement was rated.In terms of functional values, respondents agreed that the madrasah's facilities were operated appropriately and that the premise was comfortable for the program.This indicated that the madrasah has been able to play a dual function in the learning environment context by ensuring the facilities can be vital to delivering its purpose and creating opportunities for learning to happen.Respondents also agreed with the quality of activities conducted.The activities were rated to be well organized, and the respondents agreed with the knowledge and ability of the madrasah's teachers to handle the program.
As for the image portrayed by the madrasah, it can be concluded that the power of reputation can have an influence on the value of the Edu tourism program.The image projected is crucial towards the success of the program organized as the image is important, especially to attract tourists to consume any type of tourism product.The respondents were then asked to rate their agreement with the statements related to the educational values of the program.These statements were related to the activities they have undergone during their visit to the madrasah; both spiritual and recreational activities included in the program.Respondents agreed on the notion that participating in the program has somewhat increased their communication skills, alongside other skills like critical thinking and creativity.It is believed that the closeness respondents' felt throughout the duration of the program and their togetherness may have some influence on the findings.Participating in new activities like horse riding or archery may have contributed towards some increase in the respondents' knowledge and acquiring new skills.This can be concluded that Edu tourism can be an interesting approach to package tourism regardless of the huge corporation or who wants to start operating a package or similar program in premises like Madrasah.

N=75
The experiential benefit of a tourism program such as Edu-tourism can be measured by mental assessment and appreciation for the quality encountered immediately when the service is provided.As for experiential values, respondents agreed that activities they have engaged during the program met their needs and give them some new experiences and skills.The last perceived value measured is social value.Since the Edu-tourism program was conducted in close-knit surrounding, it is anticipated that some form of social interactions can have significant impact for the respondents.Social values are standard expressed in an ideal sense by the majority of a society, all contributing to a better society.Societal values guide and organize everyday life.Some of these values of society are virtues like honesty, sincerity, helpfulness, and modesty.Ideally, real values are only unique to one culture from a sociological perspectives.From the results obtained, respondents agreed that participating in a group within the Madrasah surrounding contributes toward developing the spirit of belonging.They agreed that learning in groups and doing tasks together has positive effects on their overall experiences dealing with another human being.
Lastly, respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction based on the experiences they encountered during their stay at the madrasah.Based on the table below, respondents agreed that their visit to the madrasah was as good as they have expected.The respondents were also found to agree with the activities provided during the program and were satisfied with the experience they have gained.An educational program like this, where both spiritual and recreational activities being provided together may have ignited new experiences and thus resulted in favorable rated by the respondents

Relationship between Perceived Values and Satisfaction
Further analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses mentioned above.A Shapiro-Wilk Test of Normality was firstly performed to test the normality of the data to decide on the appropriate statistical method.The test result indicated that there is no evidence of nonnormality (W=0.92,p-value=0.403).Based on this outcome, a parametric test was chosen.The variables were then tested using Pearson Correlation coefficient.The table below indicated the correlations result..001N Statistically significant positive correlations were shown to exist between each of the dimensions.Results have highlighted that functional value, experiential value and social value are significantly correlated with satisfaction.This result supports H1, H3, and H4 that was formulated as the start of the study.Functional value (r=0.509,p<0.01) indicates a moderate correlation with satisfaction while social value (r=0.389,p<0.01) and experiential value (r=0.257,p<0.05) show a weak correlation.These results are in line with previous findings that indicate perceived value dimensions are interrelated in many studies conducted before (Slack et al., 2019;Hassan, 2016).Educational value on the other hand was not statistically significantly correlated with satisfaction.Previously mentioned educational value by Kamdi, et al (2018) indicated that the dimension was found important to measure edu-tourists' perceived value.This entails that the education aspect of the Madrasah Edu-tourism was not likely to be a major turning point to measure overall satisfaction.The respondents were more likely to feel more satisfied when the functional value of the madrasah was met.In this context, better facilities, and infrastructures of the madrasah together with good quality activities provided ensure a satisfactory experience.
Further analyses were carried out to examine if the variables predict the overall satisfaction of tourists at the madrasah.Multiple linear regression was carried out to determine the effect of functional value, educational value, experiential value, and social value on overall satisfaction.Only two variables were found to be included in the model parameters.The result showed a statistically significant model (F (2,72) = 12.80, p<0.001) indicating these results were unlikely to have arisen by chance.The adjusted R 2 indicated that only 24.2% of the variance in overall satisfaction can be explained by variances in the two predictor variables.The analysis suggested that functional value (ꞵ=.47) was the most influential predictor in the model.Functional value (t=4.37,p<.001) was shown to be a statistically significant predictors of overall satisfaction.Experiential value, educational value and social value were shown not to be statistically significant predictors of overall satisfaction.

Conclusion, Recommendations and Limitations
This study has been able to present preliminary findings on the future possibility to develop Edu-tourism in the madrasah setting.Participating in a religious Edu-tourism program was found to have positive relations to satisfaction and this may indicate a worthy future for the tourism industry.The study examined perceived values of Edu-tourism in Madrasah based on four dimensions; functional, educational, experiential, and social.It can be concluded that the madrasah has acquired some acceptable degrees of values to be recognized as a centre for Edu-tourism.The findings suggested that the practice of religious teaching is at a good level, especially in the teaching of the Quran Hifz and the availability of leisure activities such as archery, horseback riding and swimming can influence interesting learning activities.This finding is consistent with Hadi et al (2019) who stated that activity presented as part of the Edu-tourism package can give impacts academic and personal gains.Their findings suggested that students who participated in Edu-tourism affirmed that through the programs they became more self-reliant, gain invaluable insights and experiences as well as being more selfconfident.The Pondok Pengajian Ilmu Wahyu is at foundational planning to market their facilities as part of Edu-Tourism in Melaka, the findings have able to provide some insights on critical points to realize this hope.Edu-tourism in madrasah such as this could be an opportunity to encourage more outsiders to participate in the activities and become a new tourism product in the future.It is believed that if careful planning is ingested towards enhancing resources in Madrasah for tourism purposes, it may have a significant impact on the tourism industry in Malaysia.
This study was conducted in a chosen site where resources for tourism are available.The sample may not be representative of another Edu-tourism context.Nonetheless, the study was one of its kind that attempt to assess Edu-tourism in a religious school setting.Therefore, it presents a slightly different perspective and evaluation of Edu-tourism.Future studies conducted in a similar context may extend their investigations towards acceptance and readiness of such institutions as madrasah or Pondok towards promoting and marketing Edutourism seriously.In addition, future efforts may also look at other stakeholders' views and opinions on the development of Edu-tourism in the madrasah setting.

Table 1
Descriptive analysis on constructs and dimensions

Table 3
Summary results of Multiple Linear Regression using the Stepwise Method