Travel motivation of Malaysian University students

Abstract

The segment of youth travel has been considered a niche market and was treated as a branch of the tourism industry. In the past few decades, its market value has begun to increase significantly bringing real benefits to the companies tapping into this segment by developing appropriate strategies and policies. Given its significance, there have been an increasing number of researches in this topic with a focus on university students market, which have been largely neglected in the past. This study in particular, utilized the push and pull analysis in decrypting university students motivation to travel. For that purposes, a total of 500 students from Universiti Utara Malaysia were selected for the self-administered surveys using systematic random sampling approach. The statistical analysis indicates that several push and pull factors were considered very important for the university students in making travel decisions. In addition to that, travel characteristics of university students revealed crucial information for travel suppliers and marketers in delivering specialised services that could satisfy their unique needs and desires.