Azizan Marzuki

By Azizan Marzuki, Tan Lay Chin and Arman Abdul Razak

Part of the book: Strategies for Tourism Industry

By Azizan Marzuki and Joanne Khoo

Community capacity building is widely acknowledged as a crucial tool to foster the process of tourism development. In Langkawi, rapid transformation of the island leads to the marginalisation of the rural economy. As a result, various strategies and tools have been attempted to empower local community participation in tourism activities. This article aims to examine the existing strategies adopted by related stakeholders in Langkawi to work with local communities. For this purpose, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted among 20 local stakeholders including government and non-governmental agencies, community leaders, and tourism business operators. Results of the interviews indicated that the existing strategies and tools of capacity building approach include (1) education and training, (2) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) projects, (3) environmental conservation strategies, and (4) partnership building. In conclusion, related authorities and tourism planners need to consider local residents' opinions into the implementation process to ensure positive outcomes from the community development strategies.

Part of the book: Tourism

By Norkamaliah Shahrin and Azizan Marzuki

Long-haul travel does not constitute an obstacle for tourists to travel and is fast gaining the attention of tourists in new and unique experiences. This study was conducted to identify the long-haul travel motivation by international tourists to Penang. A total of 400 respondents participated in this survey, conducted around the tourist attractions in Penang, using cluster random sampling. However, only 370 questionnaires were only used for this research. Data were analysed using SPSS software 22 version. The findings, ‘knowledge and novelty seeking’ were the main push factors that drove long-haul travel by international tourists to Penang. Meanwhile, the main pull factor that attracts long-haul travel by international tourists to Penang was its ‘culture and history’. Additionally, there were partly direct and significant relationships between socio-demographic, trip characteristics and travel motivation (push factors and pull factors). Overall, this study identified the long-haul travel motivations by international tourists to Penang based on socio-demographic, trip characteristics and travel motivation and has indirectly helped in understanding the long-haul travel market particularly for Penang and Southeast Asia. This research also suggested for an effective marketing and promotion strategy in providing useful information that is the key to attract international tourists to travel long distances.

Part of the book: Mobilities, Tourism and Travel Behavior

By Hamed Mehranian and Azizan Marzuki

This chapter focuses on beach users’ perceptions toward beach quality aspects and crowding as well as investigating beach users’ main preferred activities and their motivations to choose Cenang beach in Langkawi Island as a major destination for holidaymakers in Malaysia. Questionnaire surveys on a total of 400 local and international beach users were carried out (January and February 2014). This study revealed that physical and morphological aspects of the beach have been recognized by beach users as the most important aspects of beach quality while environmental issues were ranked as the less important. Swimming and sunbathing were identified as the main preferred activities by users and landscape, water and sand cleanliness were identified as the most important reasons for choosing Cenang beach to visit. This study also found that the increased beach’s sand availability does not necessarily reduce the degree of crowdedness felt by beach users.

Part of the book: Sea Level Rise and Coastal Infrastructure

By Muhammad Saleh and Azizan Marzuki

The book chapter assesses the recent role and advance of private companies/contractors in solid waste management in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria, and the various challenges that ensue as a result of their operations. The methods used include: direct field measurement, focus group discussion, inventory, individual interviews, questionnaire administration, and case study of the operation of private companies in two local government areas of Kano state. The result shows that the total number of 50 inventoried registered companies operating under franchise agreement in Kano metropolis are contributing greatly in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of refuse collection, recovery of material, recycling and disposal, creation of employment opportunities, economic development of Kano Metropolis through real capital investment, among others. The discussion in this paper comes to the conclusion that the Nigeria’s solid waste management system requires the adoption of suitable collection, reduction, treatment, recovery, and recycling technologies (solid waste hierarchy). Through a variety of currently accessible scientific treatment approaches, it is necessary to underline the relevant consequences for the potential solutions in MSW at the local and state level. Municipalities (L.G.A.), with the help of the unorganized sector and private waste management companies, are therefore required to concentrate on developing potentials and opportunities in order to achieve the necessary MSWM sustainability for Nigerian cities. This can be done by allowing the stakeholders in SWM to extend their coverage beyond the current operational area to include the entire metropolis.

Part of the book: Solid Waste and Landfills Management