Mature Tourist Shopping Behaviour in Kuching, Sarawak
Azila Azmi1*, Hanani Ahmad Zubir2, Gareth Shaw3
1 Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
2 Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
3 Gareth Shaw, University of Exeter Business School Faculty, United Kingdom
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 September 2020 | Published: 30 September 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the shopping preferences among mature tourists. A qualitative research strategy was employed as an attempt to understand the shopping preferences of senior mature tourist visiting Kuching, Sarawak. Thirty informants were interviewed using mall-intercept surveys with in-depth semi-structured interviews. The transcribed interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that most mature tourists prefer going to the mall because of relaxation, enjoyment, and the entertainment activities in the malls. Both international and domestic mature tourists do not differ much in their responses during the interviews. When going to the malls, they prefer to visit the fashion outlets, home furnishings shops, and food outlets, and they also believe the malls should be convenient, have good facilities, and friendly retailers. The results of the study are beneficial to the mall management and tourism related agencies in understanding the needs and demand of the mature tourists.
Keywords: tourism, retailing, shopping tourism, tourist activity, mall shopping
___________________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
For centuries, tourists have been motivated to travel for the purpose personal or non-personal reasons, namely leisure, business, and visiting friends and relatives. In response to that, destinations across the globe are vying to understand the needs, interest and desire of the tourists by developing and implementing the best tourism strategies to meet those needs. One of the strategies is by introducing shopping tourism in their marketing plan. As reported by UNWTO (2014), there has been a tremendous growth of shopping tourism landscape over the recent years. The impact of shopping activities towards tourism destination has been recognized as one of the major contributors of tourism expenditure as well as the major source of income for the national economies. Shopping tourism activities have lured tourists to the particular destinations and have become a major influence for tourism trends globally.
It has become one of the key sources of income for significant parts of retail industry. It is also one of the most enjoyable activities and a crucial component while travelling for tourists.
Undeniably, most tourists’ travel itineraries are considered imperfect without the option of shopping activities (Filipović, Jovanović, & Cicvarić Kostić, 2013; Jin, Moscardo, &
Murphy, 2017).
From the academic point of views, the significant relationship between tourism and retailing has been widely recognized. Most of the previous studies discussed it from the perspective of supply and demand (Jin, Moscardo & Murphy, 2017). Most scholars defined the concept of shopping tourism as an activity whereby a tourist visiting a destination for the purpose of
shopping or a tourism destination that developed and promoted as shopping destination.
Despite the widespread recognition on shopping tourism study, it is only in recent years that tourist behaviour has begun to receive increased attention in Malaysia. The rapid development of parts of Malaysia as one of the best shopping destinations in Asia has been linked to the development of major shopping projects designed to stimulate the country as shopping and tourism destination. Kuching is one of the cities located in Sarawak which is well-known for its multi diverse culture of different ethics. Thus, it has contributed to the arrivals of both domestic and international matured tourists with different shopping behaviours as compared to the younger tourists. Apart from that, recently Kuching has been promoted by Tourism Malaysia as one of the shopping destinations in Borneo with the increasing number of shopping malls. Although the number of shopping malls is expanding, there are inadequate studies that focus on the mature tourists shopping behaviour in the region. Most of the previous studies were found researching on either European countries or the United States. As shopping is common across all ages, one group of generation that needs to be focused on is the mature tourists.
Hence, in tapping into this gap, the main focus of this study is to explore the shopping behaviours among matured tourists in Kuching. Knowing the potential of the mature tourists could not only help the retailers in shopping malls to comprehend better about the factors prompting the shopping behaviours among the mature tourists, but also increase the income for the country. Henceforth, this study is intended to fill the gap by exploring the following research questions:
1) What are the reasons of mature tourists visiting the malls?
2) What are the types of stores do they visit in these malls?
3) What are their expectations when making such visits?
In this study, a qualitative approach is conducted. The mature tourists were approached and the data regarding their opinion of the malls were presented. Several malls in Kuching were identified as tourist-oriented malls. The mature tourists were intercepted while they were shopping at these malls.
2. Literature Review
Shopping Tourism
The significance of the relationship between shopping and tourism has been widely recognized from the perspective of tourist and destination (Jin, Moscardo & Murphy, 2017) and the importance of shopping to tourist behaviour suggested that more research is deemed important to understand the patterns of tourist shopping (Moscardo, 2004). A review on the previous literature on shopping and tourism suggested that there are two perspectives in understanding shopping tourism; shopping can be the primary reason for tourists to travel or it can be as a secondary activity occurs during a trip (Butler, 1991). Of the two perspectives of tourist shopping, tourists’ specific needs and desires influence them to visit specific regions or countries for the purpose of shopping (Timothy & Butler, 1995). Based on this relationship, Timothy (2005) concluded the main reasons for tourist to shop in other destination are mainly because of the merchandise sought after, destination selected and price benefits. These three factors are among the major reasons that influence shopping as a motivation for tourist to shop. Although these were the primary reasons to shop, different segment of tourist might have different behaviour while at the shopping destination. The present paper seeks to understand one of the tourist markets that rarely been discussed in shopping literature, the mature tourist or the senior tourist.
Shopping Tourism in Malaysia
One of the reasons that attracts people to visit Malaysia is because of the shopping tourism.
In 2015, the tourists’ arrival being recorded was 25.70 million and the spending receipt was RM69.1 billion. The data has recorded increasing number of tourists’ arrival by the first half of 2016. Malaysia has received 13,032775 tourists as compared to 12,567,300 of the tourists’
arrival in the first half of 2015. The tourists’ receipt has also increased and it was around RM37.4 billion. In the previous year, only RM33.8 billion was recorded. The shopping receipts in the first half of 2016 was recorded as positively growing with RM11.7 billion as compared to RM10 billion in 2015. Among the tourists, Middle-East tourists contribute to the growing number and they are believed to choose Malaysia because of the economic factors and this can relate to how they spend when they come to Malaysia (Mohd Salleh, Othman, Mohd Noor, & Hasim, 2010). Zakariya (2006) also mentioned that among the reasons the Middle-East tourists visit Malaysia is because of the availability to the shopping malls especially in Kuala Lumpur areas. In 2016, Malaysia won an award in Hong Kong for its Shopping Campaign (Tourism Malaysia, 2016). Malaysia Super Sale, Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival, and Malaysia Year End Sale, are listed as the three major national’s sales campaigns in Malaysia held every year to encourage shopping activities for both domestic and international tourists. Malaysia Super Sale started from 1 January until 28 February, followed by Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival from 1 May until 31 July, and finally the Malaysia Year End Sale from 1 October until 31 December 2019.
Shopping Tourism Activities in Kuching
Kuching has been one of the most visited cities in Malaysia. As of June 2016, Kuching has received a total of 2, 165, 694 tourists and among them are 1,036,147 international tourists and 1,129,547 domestic tourists which include the tourists that came from the other states of Malaysia (Immigration Department of Sarawak, 2016). Besides history, culture, nightlife, food, attraction, and accommodation, shopping is also one of the reasons to visit Kuching (Young, 2016). The growth in number of shopping malls in Kuching has helped the economic growth of the city. Among the shopping malls in Kuching are Plaza Merdeka, Vivacity Megamall, CityONE Megamall, and The Spring Shopping Mall. The Spring is the premium mall’s adjoining hotel that offers international brands (Tourism Malaysia, 2017) and makes it easier for tourists to shop.
Moreover, according to Sarawak Tourism Board (2017), there are many shopping activities that attract the tourists when they visit Sarawak. Among the things that they always buy when they come to Kuching are crafts and beads. Besides the local cultures and cuisines, the products of Sarawak are also part of the attractions in Kuching.
Mature Tourists
Tourist shopping behaviour requires studies as it is a part of tourism setting and indifferent by days (Asadifard, Rahman, Aziz, & Hashim, 2015). Mature tourists are believed to spend more in terms of expenditure and should be the significant market for the service providers (Grougiou & Pettigrew, 2011). They prefer to enjoy life as they have more leisure time to do so and they have better income as they retired earlier and they have low debt rates (Ann &
Koenraad, 2010).
As a matter of fact, mature tourists are the growing and potential market for the future growth (Littrell, Paige, & Song, 2004). The characteristics of mature tourists have become one of the important areas of interest to be studied on because of their growing population (Honrneman, Carter, Wei, & Ruy, 2002 as cited by Batra, 2009). Accordingly, mature consumers can be
defined as those who are 50 years old and older (Bone, 1991). Meanwhile, the mature population can be classified as those aged 55 and above that travel outside of the country with the purpose of leisure or business travel (Kim, Kang, & Kim, 2005). Mature tourists in this study referred to the tourists aged 50 years old and above, travelling to Kuching and engaging themselves with shopping. Shopping can be the main purpose of their travel or as part of their travel while in Kuching.
Mall Shopping Behaviours Among Mature Consumers
Shopping behaviours are related to how the consumers react to the shopping malls and the environment. Shopping behaviours are also related to the shopping experience received by the consumers (Xu, 2007). Mature tourists have different shopping behaviours compared to the younger consumers (Myers & Lumbers, 2008). They are more sensitive and the needs and wants of the mature consumers are different. Mature consumers are harder to predict as compared to the younger consumers. The environment of shopping malls can eventually influence the shopping behaviours among the retail consumers (Yuksel, 2007). This is partly due to the environment of the shopping malls which can influence the emotion of the consumers and then it will lead to how they behave as well as whether they will spend their time in the shopping malls or not.
Pak and Kambil (2006) mentioned that the mature consumers prefer the social connection when they go to certain stores in shopping malls. As they age, mature consumers feel the need to fill their loneliness by communicating with the sales person. Namkung and Jang (2009) stated that mature consumers are less detailed in terms of the information about products compared to the younger consumers who would find alternative information.
However, mature consumers react differently to the environment in the shopping malls as well as the facilities in the shopping malls (Ann & Koenraad, 2010).
The mature consumers are also those who spend most of their income, as well as being loyal to a product or service if they receive good service from the retailers or service providers (Grougiou & Pettigrew, 2011). However, the shopping behaviours of mature consumers and the young consumers are different. Anselmsson (2006) believed that even the level of customer satisfaction differs based on gender and age. Yüksel (2007) concluded that shopping behaviours are the responses of the consumers towards the environment. If the store provides good environment that includes not only the tangible aspects, but also the service they receive, they tend to respond positively and their shopping behaviour would be positive.
The literature review is important because it describes how the proposed research is related to prior research in statistics. It shows the originality and relevance of your research problem.
You should spend a lot of time on your literature review because if you do it well, you can use most of it in your dissertation.
There are many different types of literature reviews, each with its own approach, analysis, and purpose. Through rigorous review and analysis of literature that meets specific criteria, the systematic review identifies and compares answers to health care related questions.
3. Methodology
According to Creswell (2009), qualitative research has been proven as an ideal method in exploring individuals’ feelings, thoughts, emotions and perceptions. This study employed an exploratory qualitative approach, as the main purpose of this study is to explore the thought of mature tourist with regards to their shopping preferences. In order to grasp the mature
tourist perspective, a purposive sampling was utilized to help the researcher comprehends and describes the mature tourists shopping behaviour in Kuching. As this study relied on purposive sampling, the following respondent criteria were established:
1) respondent must be a self-proclaimed tourist aged fifty and above, 2) respondent chooses to go shopping while visiting Kuching, and 3) respondent must be willing to participate in the research.
Furthermore, in understanding the tourists view, information was obtained through an in- depth semi-structured interview. In total, thirty (30) mature tourists who had experienced visiting shopping malls in Kuching were interviewed to get their insights. The mature tourists include both domestic and international tourists. The domestic tourists are Malaysian visiting Kuching and the international tourists are those tourists who come from outside Malaysia.
The tourists were approached using the mall intercept survey in four (4) selected tourist- oriented shopping malls in Kuching; they are Plaza Merdeka, Vivacity Megamall, CityONE Megamall, and The Spring Shopping Mall. The mature tourists were all aged fifty and above.
A consent letter was given prior to the interview to each respondent. The letters were distributed and collected during the interview sessions. Each consent letter was signed upon respondent’s agreement to be interviewed. Each interview was about 20-40 minutes in length.
The respondents were intercepted with the following interview questions concerning their mall shopping behaviour, such as:
“Why do you visit a shopping mall?”
“What kind of store do you prefer to visit in malls?”
“What is your expectation when visiting a mall?”
The interviews were conducted in English. Each of the interview data were recorded and transcribed into a written form. Then, the transcribed interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis refers to the process of capturing patterns or themes across from the qualitative data. The process includes identifying, analysing and reporting the themes from the interview transcript (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The process of thematic analysis starts with familiarization with the interview data. Then, initial codes were generated before finalizing the theme. Three (3) main themes and nine (9) respective subthemes were identified. The emergent themes are all connected to the idea of mature tourist shopping behaviour; purposes of visiting the mall, their store preferences, and their expectation of the malls. Prolonged engagement and disconfirming evidence procedures were used to ensure the validity and reliability of the instrument used and data collected.
4. Findings and Discussion Respondents’ Profile
The demographic of the respondents is summarized in Table 1. This study sampled thirty (30) mature tourists visiting Kuching, Malaysia. The tourists are both domestic and international.
There are twenty (20) domestic tourists and ten (10) international tourists interviewed for this study. The respondents’ age is between fifty (50) to sixty-nine (69). The highest number of respondents are from Malaysia (67%), the rest are from United Kingdom (10%), the United States of America (10%), Brunei (2%), and Australia (2%). The interviews were conducted at the shopping malls in Kuching, Sarawak. The malls that were involved are Plaza Merdeka, Vivacity Megamall, CityONE Megamall, and The Spring Shopping Mall, these malls were chosen because they are usually visited by tourists.
Table 1: Respondents’ Profile
Variable Categories Counts
Gender Male 12
Female 18
Age 50-54 11
55-59 12
60-64 2
65-69 5
Nationality Malaysia 20
Brunei 2
Australia 2
USA 3
UK 3
Marital Status Single 1
Married 28
Divorced 1
There is no obvious differences between the responses given by the respondents during the interviews. Each respondent can answer more than one answer for each question. Thus, one respondent contributed to more than one theme for each coding. The duration of each interview ranged from 20 to 30 minutes. In the next section of this paper, the transcribed interviews were categorized into several themes.
Discussion
The respondents were asked about their shopping behaviour when visiting the malls in Kuching. In the next section, the discussion is presented according to three main themes:
1) The purpose of mall visiting among mature tourists 2) Mature tourists store preferences
3) Mature tourist mall expectations
1) Purposes of Mall Visiting
This section refers to the first research question, which seeks to look into the purpose of visiting the mall. The interview question asked to the respondents on the reasons they visit the mall. This question was asked to understand the reasons the respondents went to the mall.
The three themes generated from the interviews are relaxation, enjoyment, and entertainment.
Relaxation is one of the benefits sought by senior travellers when they are travelling (Batra, 2009), thus, this leads to what they want when they visit shopping malls. According to Yüksel (2007), enjoyment can be a motivation for the tourists to interact with the retailers and it can give positive impact to the tourists as well. Yüksel (2007) also believed that enjoyment can be lead when the tourists can find what they look for. Meanwhile, entertainment that causes lively atmosphere and reflects the local culture is the pull factor that attracts senior travellers to go to a mall (Littrell, Paige & Song, 2004). Thus, all these three themes are related to the reasons the mature tourists visit the mall. It can be concluded that all three themes are part of the major reasons the mature tourists visit malls.
i) Relaxation
This is the theme generated based on the answer given by thirteen (13) respondents.
Relaxation is one of the reasons they are visiting the malls. They find that they can go to malls just to have something to eat or just go there to look around. There are also some of them who go to the malls to feel the air-conditioner and have a place to sit. The ambiance of the mall is helping the tourists to feel relax. This can be supported by Hu and Jasper (2007) that mentioned ambiance in the mall is the reason of mature consumers visiting mall. Besides,
they can also release their stress. They found it stress-relieving when they can shop or even window shop. Some of them also believe that by going to the malls, they are not stuck in the hotel rooms. They feel good when they can go out and release their stress by doing the activity such as shopping. This can be supported by Hemalatha and Ravichandran (2009) that mentioned the consumers feel good and have positive feelings when they shop. Some of the direct quotes being given by the respondents are:
“I love shopping as it helps me to relieve my stress and I feel happy when I shop.”
“I am actually really here to do shopping and to just enjoy without being stress about anything.”
“I am stressed and the only way to release it is by doing window shopping. It is the best stress curing therapy for me.”
“Going to the mall is easy and when I am in mall, I feel relax and I can go to any stores.”
“I feel relax when I am in the mall because I can just enjoy myself going to one stores and another.”
“Although they are crowd, I still feel relax because I can get the air-conditioning and escape from the hot weather outside.”
“I am here with my wife and while she goes shopping I can just relax here and drink coffee.”
ii) Enjoyment
The second theme derived from the data is that respondents visiting the mall because of the enjoyment they felt. It is undeniable that the respondents at the age range of 50 to 66 enjoy their free time. They like spending time in the malls because for them, they can have a good time on their own or with company and just leisurely stroll around the mall. Littrell, Paige and Song (2004) believed that shopping is one of the activities carried out by tourists whether as their primary purpose of travelling or not. Thus, when the mature tourists chose to go to the mall, they make shopping as one of their holiday activities. Some of the respondents were at the malls with their family and used the opportunity to enjoy the leisure time with their family. These are some of the direct quotes based on the interviews conducted:
“I came with my family and as we always did, we go to malls because we enjoy it.”
“My wife and I think that we need to just live life to the fullest and enjoy going everywhere.
Be it malls or just anywhere.”
“The malls are always enjoyable to go. I can shop or even just watching people. I can just walk around and enjoy watching people.”
“Some malls are enjoyable to go because the malls provide just the right facilities to the oldies like us.”
“I am here for the food and I like to enjoy the malls and just stroll around.”
iii) Entertainment
The third theme emerged from the respondents’ response is entertainment. There are eight (8) respondents who come to the mall for the entertainment and activities. The activities include watching movie or watching the events being held at the malls. Among the eight informants, five of them are males and being in the mall to accompany their wives. They assumed that by occupying themselves with some entertainment such as movie watching make them feel happy and less bored. The other activity they enjoy is drinking coffee at their favourite coffee shop such as Starbucks. They can read books or be on their phone while sitting in the coffee shop. Some of the direct quotes from the interviews are as follows:
“Going to the mall is something fun to do because I can go watch movies.”
“I actually waiting for my wife to finish shopping and while waiting for her I can spend time drinking coffee and see what people is doing and sometimes enjoy watching them with all sorts of behaviours.”
“I always make sure that I can go somewhere else while waiting for my wife and here I am, at this home furnishings shop. It is best shop for me and this is the main reason why I came to the malls.”
2) Store Preferences
This section refers to the second research question which is what type of stores the respondents visit when they go to the shopping malls. There are certain stores that the mature tourists chose to go. Among the thirty informants, the store preferences differ based on their gender. For the female respondents, they prefer going to the fashion outlets. The male respondents prefer going to the shop that sells home tools. However, both gender share equal opinion regarding the food outlets. Hu and Jasper (2007) stated that store preferences of mature consumers are different from the younger consumers and the type of the stores that they visited can be the place for them to get the necessity, place to eat and place that they can spend their time at. All the places are related to the three themes of fashion outlets, food outlets, and home furnishing shops. It can be concluded that most of the mature tourists will find the food outlets when they are in a shopping mall. They believed that shopping malls should have different type of food outlets to give options to the shopping mall visitors.
Besides, the fashion outlets are also important. Lastly, the home furnishing stores are also important since most of the male informants visited.
i) Fashion Outlets
The first theme is fashion outlets. Twelve (12) respondents answered fashion outlets are the stores that they usually visit when they go to malls. They are all females and the outlets that they visit usually the clothing, shoes and bags outlets. The number of stores that they can go to actually gave them more options and they are happy to see the shops that cater to their needs and wants. According to Asadifard, Rahman, Aziz and Hashim (2015), the tourists have the behaviour of planning before they shop, but when they are in the shopping malls, they actually spend more than they have planned. Some of the respondents also mentioned that they like going to malls as they can easily find the things that they want to buy and they would not mind spending money on the expensive goods. The following are some of the direct quotes by the respondents:
“I am a shopaholic and coming to the mall actually help me to find the handbags and shoes that I want.”
“I actually want to find shoes so I think shopping mall is the only place that I can buy the shoes that I want.”
“There are many choices of stores that can help me buy different kind of clothes and they are many more shops to choose from compared to where I came from.”
“There are many stores and I can buy where ever I want. I like all the stores as they have many choices of price and design that I can choose from.”
ii) Home Furnishing Shops
The second theme for store preferences is home furnishing shops. Eight (8) male respondents came to the mall because they can visit the home furnishing shops and can look around for tools. They usually do not buy any goods, but they believed that the home furnishing shops are the only shops that they enjoy going to. Some of the direct quotes are:
“I just came back from MR D.I.Y and just looking around without buying anything but I actually found things that I would buy when I go back home.”
“The way I would spend my time while waiting for my wife is by waiting at home furnishing store and just check out what the latest tool.”
“I can be here and have my own time while looking through all these tools. It is a playground for me because I like all the items here. I am also comparing the prices so I can find the same items and buy it back home.”
iii) Food Outlets
The third theme for store preferences is food outlets and it is the most important store preferences according to the respondents. Twenty (20) respondents choose food outlets as one of their main store preferences in the shopping malls. They prefer a place where they can dine in, enjoy their cup of coffee, and just be able to talk to their family. Hasiolan and Sufiati (2014) stated that food outlets are among the significant factors that draw people to come to a mall. The mature tourists do not usually go to the malls that have only fancy dining place, but even food court with variety of choice can satisfy them. Some of the direct quotes given by the mature tourists are:
“I came because I am hungry and the mall is a place where I can find food that I want.”
“I do not want to waste time and find place to eat outside, so I came here. There are many food places that I can choose from when I am here.”
“I just want a cup of coffee and here I can just buy it and continue to walk or I can just rest at the coffee shop.”
“I love going to the food courts as there are varieties of food to choose from. In fact, I can try their local varieties”
3) Mall Expectations
This section refers to the third research question of what do the respondents expect from the malls. Mall expectation is the attributes being expected by the mature tourists when they are in a mall. The three themes that derived from the mall expectations are convenience, facilities, and friendly retailers. Anselmsson (2006) believed that convenience is important for the older consumers as they want everything to be reachable. The senior customers also rely on the sales people when they want to purchase something (Anselmsson, 2006) and this leads to the theme of friendly retailers, as they believed friendly retailers can be the impetus for them to buy from the stores. Facilities can stimulate selection of the shopping malls that the visitors want to go to (Gudonaviciene & Alijosiene, 2013).
i) Convenience
The first theme for mall expectation is convenience. Twenty-five (25) respondents expect the mall to give them convenience. Based on the interviews being conducted, tourists are likely to go to the malls because they can have everything in one place. Hu and Jasper (2007) mentioned that mature shoppers are seeking for a place where they can find everything in just one place and so they can save time. Thus, it is very easy for the mature tourists to just find everything in a mall compared to other outlets. They can search for place to eat and place to shop in just one place. The tourists also like the varieties of stores that they can go and visit in a mall. Wakefield and Baker (1998) also mentioned that the tenant variety makes the consumers to be more motivated to be in a mall. As mature tourists are mostly stable in terms of their incomes, they do not mind going to any stores once they are in a mall although it is just for window shopping. Some of the direct quotes given by the tourists during the interview are as follows:
“I expect the mall to have everything so that it will be easy for me to search for things that I want to buy”
“I like to eat so I can just go eat at any food outlets that I like when I am eating in the mall because after eating I can go to shop. I don’t have to go to different places, everything in one building”
“The reason I go to mall is to go to the supermarket in it and I can also visit the other stores without having to go to another place. It all in one place”
ii) Facilities
The second theme for mall expectation is the facilities. Twenty (20) respondents expect good facilities from the shopping malls. The physical design in the store can influence the consumer perception and thus, create an experience for them (Ann & Koenraad, 2010). Even a simple facility such as the air-conditioner makes them prefer going to the malls. As the weather in Kuching is considered hot, most of the international tourists would seek for the malls to use the facilities such as the air-conditioner. Besides, the tourists found that the facilities in a mall should be complete with not only the stores, but also the facilities such as the prayer room, toilets, automated teller machines, places to sit, and most of the malls in Kuching have the massage chairs which mature consumers look forward. However, they would prefer if all the facilities are functioning well and they also like the mall to be clean.
Apart from that, mature tourists also enjoy going to the mall that provides easy access to go from one place and another. It is favourable if the malls are near to their hotels and the famous attractions of the city. The followings are some of the direct quotes gained from the respondents:
“I love when I come here and I can be able to use the facilities. I expect all the facilities in the mall is functioning well especially the air-condition as the wheatear in Kuching is hot and humid”
“After the city tour, I came for the air-conditioned because the weather is too hot outside.
Besides I hope to see the facilities in the mall clean especially the toilet and prayer room”
“I expect to see lots of sitting areas inside the mall so that I can sit whenever I feel tired and don’t have to be in the scorching hot weather”
“When I go to a mall, I would prefer if the mall have prayer room”
“I like this mall because the toilets are clean. Whenever I go to the malls, I would like a mall with clean toilets.”
“I’m staying at a nearby hotel and I can just walk to the mall so, it is good enough for me. I purposely choose to stay at the hotel that near to mall”
iii) Friendliness of Shops
The third theme for mall expectation is friendly retailers. The respondents also believe that friendly retailers are something they expect from the stores they are visiting. Ten (10) respondents expect the retailers to be friendly when they approach them. They want the salespeople to talk nicely to them, then, they will consider purchasing or buying anything being promoted in the stores. Good and friendly retailers motivate people to go and buy from the stores. Fun and approachable retailers can increase the customers buying behaviour as they think the buying experience would be valuable and they are highly expected to come again to the store (Yüksel, 2007). Some direct quotes received from the respondents that reflect friendly retailer as a theme of mall expectations are as follows:
“I like shopping in a store especially when someone approaches to assist me. I feel appreciated. If the sales girl is being friendly, I would definitely buy from the shop”
“I like the friendliness of the salespeople as I find it heart-warming. I might come to the shops again for the rest of my vacation if I receive the same good treatment every time.”
“I feel happy to shop at a store if I am being greeted happily. I like to browse around during shopping and if the salespeople are friendly and greeted me nicely, I wouldn’t mind stop by at their store”
5. Conclusion
This study has discovered that the shopping behaviour attributes among mature tourists in one of the tourism destinations in Malaysia, Kuching. The mature tourists were interviewed in three malls in Kuching; namely Plaza Merdeka, Vivacity, and The Spring. In Kuching, the mature tourists go to the mall for three main reasons; relaxation, enjoyment, and entertainment. When visiting a mall, they prefer to visit fashion outlets, home furnishing stores, and food outlets. The mature tourists expect the mall to be convenient, equipped with facilities, and friendly retailers. All of these are related to the research question of understanding the shopping behaviours among mature tourists in Kuching. From an academic view, this study contributes to the literature on mature tourists and their shopping behaviour.
Moreover, from practical view, this study also has some implications on marketers and policy makers. Understanding the shopping behaviour among mature tourists can be helpful to the mall management, retailer, and shopping secretariat to have a better understanding on mature consumer shopping behaviour.
The research setting in this study may limit the generalizability of the findings. The sample is international tourists in Kuching and may not be applicable to all international tourists in Malaysia or other countries. Besides selecting Kuching as a location, future study can be conducted in other shopping places in Malaysia such as in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, and Langkawi as the cities have been listed among the top shopping sites in Malaysia by Tourism Malaysia in 2015. Moreover, a comparative study could be done to scrutinize any resemblances and metamorphoses of the shopping cities in Malaysia as well as the tourist shopping behaviour between different age groups. The findings from the study could provide a more comprehensive understanding on the tourists shopping behaviour in mall, particularly in Malaysia. In view of that, future studies in other countries may help to broaden the applicability and to highlight any variances in this subsection of tourism market.
References
Ann, P., & Koenraad, V. C. (2010). Designing a retail store environment for the mature market: A European perspective. Journal of Interior Design, 35(2), 21-36.
Anselmsson, J. (2006). Sources of customer satisfaction with shopping malls: a comparative study of different customer segments. The International Review of Retail, 16(1), 115-138.
Asadifard, M., Rahman, A. A., Aziz, Y. A., & Hashim, H. (2015). A review on tourist mall patronage determinant in Malaysia. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 6(3), 229.
Batra, A. (2009). Senior pleasure tourists: examination of their demography, travel experience, and travel behavior upon visiting the Bangkok metropolis. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 103(197-212).
Bone, P. F. (1991). Identifying mature segments. Journal of consumer Marketing, 8(4), 19- 32.
Butler, R. W. (1991). West Edmonton Mall as a tourist attraction. Canadian Geographer, 35(3), 287-295.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA.
Filipović, V., Jovanović, D., & Kostić, S. C. (2013). Attracting tourists to a shopping centre. Tourism Management, (66), 15-18.
Gudonaviciene, R., & Alijosiene, S. (2013). Influence of shopping centre image attributes on customer choices. Economics and Management, 18(3), 545-552.
Grougiou, V., & Pettigrew, S. (2011). Senior customers’ service encounter preferences, Journal of Service Research, 14(4), 475–488.
Hasiolan, E. S., & Sufiati, M. P. (2014). Influencing factors and attractiveness of shopping mall to mall behaviour of people in Jakarta. Journal of Business and Management, 3(1), 76-80.
Hemalatha, G. K., & Ravinchandran, K. (2009). Mall visit behaviour of older generation-y consumers. Serbian Journal of Management, 4(2), 169-182.
Horneman, L., Carter, R. W., Wei, S., & Ruys, H. (2002). Profiling the senior traveller: An Australian perspective. Journal of travel research, 41(1), 23-37.
Hu, H., & Jasper, C. R. (2007). A Qualitative Study of Mall Shopping behaviours of mature consumers. Journal of Shopping Center Research, 14(1), 17–38.
Immigration Department of Sarawak. (2016). Visitors arrival into Sarawak 2016.
http://www.mtac.sarawak.gov.my/upload/file_folder/jun%202016.pdf. Accessed the 28th of March 2018, at 08:40.
Jin, H., Moscardo, G., & Murphy, L. (2017). Making sense of tourist shopping research: A critical review. Tourism Management, 62, 120-134.
Kim, Y. K., Kang, J., & Kim, M. (2005). The relationships among family and social interaction, loneliness, mall shopping motivation, and mall spending of older consumers. Psychology & Marketing, 22(12), 995-1015.
Littrell, M. A., Paige, R. C., & Song, K. (2004). Senior travellers: tourism activities and shopping behaviours. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 10(4), 348-362.
Mohd. Salleh, N.M., Mohd. Noor, H. S., Othman, R., & Hasim, M. S. (2010). Malaysian tourism demand from the Middle East market: a preliminary analysis, International Journal of West Asian Studies, 2(1), 37–52.
Moscardo, G. (2004). Shopping as a destination attraction: An empirical examination of the role of shopping in tourists’ destination choice and experience. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 10(4), 294-307.
Timothy, D. J. (2005). Shopping tourism, retailing and leisure. Channel View Publications.
Timothy, D. J., & Butler, R. W. (1995). Cross-boder shopping: A North American perspective. Annals of tourism research, 22(1), 16-34.
Tourism Malaysia (2016). Malaysia’s shopping campaign wins’ award in Hong Kong.
http://www.tourism.gov.my/media/view/malaysia-s-shopping-campaign-wins-award-in- hong-kong. Accessed the 6th of June 2019, at 12:20
Myers, H., & Lumbers, M. (2008). Understanding older shoppers: a phenomenological investigation. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 25(5), 294-301.
Namkung, Y., & Jang, S. (2009). The effects of interactional fairness on satisfaction and behavioural intentions: Mature versus non-mature customers. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(3), 397–405.
Pak, C., & Kambil, A. (2006). Over 50 and ready to shop: serving the aging consumer. Journal of Business Strategy, 27(6), 18-28.
Sarawak Tourism Board. (2017). Shopping malls in Kuching.
https://sarawaktourism.com/attraction/malls-in-kuching/. Accessed the 21st of January 2018, at 09:40
Tourism Malaysia. (2017). Enhancing Malaysia’s position as a shopping hub.
http://www.tourism.gov.my/niche/shopping. Accessed the 6th June 2019, at 11:30
UNWTO (2014). Global report on shopping tourism.
http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/am9-shopping-report_v2.pdf. Accessed the 1st of August 2019, at 10:51
Wakefield, K. L., & Baker, J. (1998). Excitement at the mall: determinants and effects on shopping response. Journal of retailing, 74(4), 515-539.
Xu, Y. (2007). Impact of store environment on adult generation y consumers’ impulse buying. Journal of Shopping Center Research, 14(1), 39–56.
Yüksel, A. (2007). Tourist shopping habitat: effects on emotions, shopping value and behaviours. Tourism Management, 28, 58–69.
Zakariya, K. (2006). Refining tourist's place experience through placemaking: a case study on Middle East tourists in Kuala Lumpur city centre, Unpublished PhD Thesis. Johor, Malaysia: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Siti Sarahaisah Ramli for assisting in the data collection process.
