Western Tourists Perception of Malaysian Gastronomic Products

Continual efforts have been made by international organizations to discover new tourism products and activities that have the opportunity of being marketed and promoted. Gastronomy has been identified as one of the new tourism product which is directly relevant to the Malaysian context. At present gastronomy is a valuable source of attracting tourists from all over the world and this has led to the empirical investigation on western tourists perception of Malaysian gastronomic products (food, beverages and food cultures). The sample population was randomly selected among the western tourists at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) who had consumed and experienced these gastronomic products during their vacation in Malaysia. Predominantly the data were based on self-completed questionnaires. A series of statistical analyses were employed by looking at the frequencies, mean scores and standard deviation through descriptive and parametric statistics. The results revealed that the majority of western tourists perceived that Malaysia offered great choices of tasty and freshly prepared food, snacks and beverages. The western tourists also perceived that Malaysia owned a unique and exquisite identity of food culture. In addition, the findings demonstrated that the local gastronomic products can be a catalyst for boosting the local economy.