Factors affecting tourist arrival in Sabah / Asrafrawbi'ah Abdullah

This paper outlaid the factors affecting tourist arrival in Sabah. The main objective is to determine the factors that determine tourist arrival and its contribution to the economic growth in Sabah. The paper presents the primary data collected by personally handed out questionnaires involving a sample of 50 respondents from local and international tourists. The results clearly indicated that the natural landscape and uniqueness of Sabah do contribute to the number of tourist arrivals and those independent variables such as information sources, recreation provided and tourist attractions do affect the number of tourist arrival in Sabah. Tourists' preferences can be analysed to the use of microeconomic theory, for example, demand theory and also push-pull theory. The final finding was the development of tourist attraction spot need to be upgraded in line with the expectation of the tourist such as the quality, cleanliness and the safety of the environment. Therefore, it is essentially important for the government to develop tourism attraction spots whereby it will surely improve the economic growth of tourism in Sabah.