The determinant of visitor experience in Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the determinant of the visitor experience in Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Many researchers have looked at the visitor motivations and experience in the different context of tourism industry. Unique and memorable experience is crucial for the long-term in order to sustain the business of tourism sector, especially in the museum context as certain people still have the stigma that museum is boring. However, this research will investigate the relation between five experience attributes that relate to museum visitor experience. Five different attributes of experience include sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral, and social context. In order to investigate the attributes of experience, qualitative content analysis approach has been applied in this research. The data were collected from 509 online reviews in TripAdvisor and only English language reviews have been selected in a period of oneyear duration. The online reviews of Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia contain 93.7% positive review and just 2.8% negative reviews while the balance 3.5% is neutral reviews. Apart from that, the additional attributes have been found that makes the total of six attributes of experience in Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia which are sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral, social, and ancillary attribute. Each attribute contains an element that supports the attributes of experience. This research provides insightful data on museum visitor experience that can be utilized by Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia and other museum management to enhance their services.