Malaysia smart tourism framework: Is smart mobility relevant?

Abstract

Tourism contributes significantly to Malaysia’s economic stability and has positioned it as one of the most visited tourist destinations in the ASEAN region. The rapid progress in the development of digitalization, communication technologies (ICT) with advancement of applications and devices demand a new tourism horizon - Smart Tourism. To date, tourist mobility in Malaysia tourism destinations is still limited in terms of intelligent transportation system, and the real-time data are less integrated, efficient, reliable and sustainable. A comprehensive smart tourism framework has yet to be introduced to deliver this vision. This study aimed to explore smart mobility as one of the characteristics in constructing a Malaysia Smart Tourism Framework (MSTF). 20 prominent tourism experts among academician, government directors and tourism business operators were chosen for a structured interview. The majority of respondents believed that smart mobility with a seamless and efficient connectivity and transportation need to be embedded in the new MSTF. An intelligent mobility system needs to be computed by all tourism suppliers and authorities in ensuring the tourists’ demands are fulfilled with a smart sustainable optimization of local resources.