Capturing the actual perceived image of international urban tourist during visitation in Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

Destination image in Tourism Business District (TBD) especially in designated urban area often fail to capture real tourism image due to the nature that it was pre-conceive and portray from the view of supply side (or authorities and marketer). In other word, inaccurate image have been promoted from the view of supply-side rather than from demand-side (tourist). From the view of demand side, it was known in the existing literature that most of the tourism image studies focusing on measuring tourist perceived image using the idea of ‘before and after’ visitation (pre-visit and post-visit). However, a question arise as to how these efforts really capturing the actual image while tourist experiencing the site (during visit). In this context, the advancement in internet and sharing media technology using phone application increase the possibility in capturing ‘real time’ image or actual perceived image during the visit. One of them is using Volunteer Employed Photographer (VEP) technique. VEP give advantage in reducing cost of labor and equipment to collect the data since the respondent itself acting as a labor by using their own device to capture the image. The innovation and trend on smart phone for instance, allow tourist to capture high resolution photo and instantly shared. VEP in this case is a form of method in data collection that allow qualitative analysis in order to explore in depth the nature and formation of destination image. As Kuala Lumpur targeting to become a world class business city destination, an ideal destination image is critical and actual image will be able to portray correct positioning of the city tourism according to tourist perspective. This paper indicates preliminary findings of 116 international respondents on on-going survey in Kuala Lumpur business district or also known as golden triangle of Kuala Lumpur representing Bukit Bintang, Raja Chulan and Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (KLCC). The early findings suggest the need to facilitate theoretical integration of tourist-determined images with destination-determined images.