| Summary: | As one of the leading tourism destinations in Malaysia particularly after Kuala
Lumpur and Pahang, Penang faces competition with its neighbouring
competitors. To remain competitive, Penang needs to identify its strengths and
weaknesses and consequently develop its future marketing strategies to secure
high tourists’ satisfaction. Indeed, tourist satisfaction needs to be measured
and monitored. In light of this consideration, it is believed that the importanceperformance
analysis (IPA) was found to be a practical and useful technique
for evaluating attributes that satisfy tourist and at the same time measure the
importance of the same attributes to the tourists. This paper presents an
application of the IPA technique to a sample of 372 international visitors who
visiting Penang Island between September to October 2012. The data, analyzed
quantitatively using matrices, showed the mean score of importance, which
were plotted against performance onto two-dimensional axis. Results show that
Penang performs well in five items namely (1) safety and security; (2) image of
destination; (3) variety of attractions; (4) value for money; and (5)
accessibility to the destination. On the other hands, findings show that there is
room for improvement for accommodation services, and other areas like
friendliness of the people and cultural/historical uniqueness appear to get too
much attention. Moreover, this study is significant in identifying the prime
market segments and evaluating the products and services provided. As a
result, it provides an insight for tourism stakeholder such as hotels operators,
public transport operators, food operators, policy makers and others towards
enhancing future development of tourism in Penang.
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