Title: Investigating river destination image by using tri-component model: a case of Malacca River - the Venice of the East

Authors: Jason M.S. Lam; Ling Suan Choo; Yit Leng Oh; Saw Chin Khor

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Multimedia University (Malacca campus), Old Ayer Keroh Road, 75400 Malacca, West Malaysia ' Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Kingdom of Bahrain ' Faculty of Business, Multimedia University (Malacca campus), Old Ayer Keroh Road, 75400 Malacca, West Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, West Malaysia

Abstract: Previous research on image attributes of river tourism destinations has focused on general image or cognitive attributes, subjective components of image formation, the affective and conative elements, have largely been ignored. We argue that cognitive image may not necessarily induce a positive affective attribute, and hence explored the possible significant relationships by using the tri-component model of destination image in the context of river tourism destinations. A self-administered survey was conducted in the vicinity of Malacca River (Sungai Melaka) and the results for a sample group of 203 international tourists revealed that three cognitive image dimensions, landscape, quay amenities and night attractions, significantly influenced affective and conative images respectively. The findings also determined that the tri-component model was a 'fit' to the study and, thus, contributes to the river tourism destination literature.

Keywords: river tourism destination; destination image; Malacca River; cognitive-affective-conative model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSOC.2020.109770

International Journal of Sustainable Society, 2020 Vol.12 No.3, pp.238 - 252

Received: 26 Aug 2019
Accepted: 22 Nov 2019
Published online: 23 Sep 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article