Factors influencing the intention of inbound muslim travellers to revisit Malaysia

Research on Islamic tourism has often been described as a new research direction, particularly in the area of Muslim travellers revisit intention to certain tourism destination. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing inbound Muslim travellers' revisit intention to Malaysia. Five variables have been tested as the factors influencing revisit intention which consist of attitude towards Islamic attributes of destination, attitude towards destination attributes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and tourist satisfaction. The mediating effect of tourist satisfaction
between the variables and inbound Muslim travellers' revisit intentions have also been tested. Although past researchers have investigated the influence of these variables on revisit intentions, only a few researchers discovered the effect of tourist satisfaction as a mediator between the variables and revisit intention in the context of inbound Muslim travellers. The model of this study was developed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Islamic attributes of destination as well as destination attributes. The
study employed multistage sampling and the data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The results indicate that attitude towards destination attributes (attraction), attitude towards Islamic attributes of destination (worship facilities), subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and tourist satisfaction are the factors of inbound Muslim travellers' revisit intentions to Malaysia. Further, it is seen that tourist satisfaction mediates between the factors and revisit intention. Consequently, the current findings have further strengthened the theory on Theory of Planned Behavior, Islamic attributes of destination, destination attributes and related literature. This study also put forth recommendations for tourism practitioners regarding the best approaches in encouraging inbound Muslim travellers' revisit
intentions to Malaysia by using the factors of revisit intention. It would be interesting to incorporate into future research other variables which may contribute to strengthening the theory besides providing the management the know-how for better informed
decisions.