Enhancing regional tourism: ranking tourism destinations in Perlis using fuzzy TOPSIS based on internal motivational factors

Despite being Malaysia's smallest and most northern state, Perlis offers diverse tourist destinations that combine natural beauty and cultural heritage. The Visit Perlis 2024-2025 campaign has boosted tourism efforts. However, tourism planners encounter difficulties in understanding and ranking destinations due to the subjective and complex nature of tourist preferences. This study aims to evaluate and rank tourism destinations in Perlis by focusing on internal motivational factors such as psychological factors, physical factors, social interaction, and seeking/exploration. Expert evaluations were conducted using structured questionnaires to collect data from 19 popular tourist attractions. The fuzzy TOPSIS method was utilised to cope with the inherent complexity and vagueness associated with human judgment in tourism decision-making. Four tourism experts assessed the significance of each criterion as well as the performance of each destination. The results revealed that psychological factors greatly influenced tourist decisions, followed by social interaction, seeking/exploration, and physical factors. Pasar Terapung JPS Perlis emerged as the top-ranked destination with a closeness coefficient (CC) of 0.5377 due to its unique floating market experience similar to that in Thailand. It was closely followed by Taman Anggur Perlis (CC = 0.5373) and Nat Pokok Getah (CC = 0.5371). Conversely, lower-ranked destinations such as Muzium Kota Kayang (CC = 0.5326) highlight a need for more engaging and interactive visitor experiences. This study offers valuable information for stakeholders, including tourism planners, travel agencies, and policymakers, to customise marketing strategies, upgrade infrastructure, and enrich visitor experiences. It emphasises the need to strategically integrate tourism development initiatives with tourists’ intrinsic motivations, preferences, and experiential expectations in order to foster a more sustainable, competitive, and long-term tourism growth trajectory in Perlis.