THE CLASSIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS BASED ON CULTURAL ACTIVITIESBASED SEGMENTATION: THE CASE OF PENANG, MALAYSIA

Abstract

This study evaluates the perceptions of cultural tourists regarding the importance and performance of Penang’s attributes. Both activities-based analysis and importance-performance analysis were used. The former was applied to identify cultural tourists from all international tourists to Penang; whereas the latter evaluated their perceptions concerning Penang’s attributes. The findings reveal that Penang’s cultural tourists primarily perceive the image of Penang according to its World Heritage Site status. Additionally, Penang’s cultural and historical uniqueness were the second most important attributes, having satisfactory performance, ranking just after the island’s image.
A discussion of the results and suggestions for further studies are presented.