The Effect of Street Food Attributes on Enhancing Food Tourism in Malaysia: The Mediation Role of Tourist Perception

Abstract

Tourism Malaysia symbolizes street food as a major antecedent in attracting International tourists for their travelling purpose to this country. This study aims to investigate how street food attributes affect the enhancement of food tourism in Malaysia. Using a sample of 313 tourists, a survey was conducted at Jalan Alor in Kuala Lumpur and George Town in Penang who were international tourists consuming street food. The findings confirm that a positive and significant relationship is found between product quality and tourist satisfaction. Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship is also found between hygiene & ambiance and tourist satisfaction. Then, a positive and significant relationship remains between service quality and tourist satisfaction. Besides, this study also claims that tourist perception mediates the relationship between product quality and service quality with tourist satisfaction. But, this study claims that tourist perception doesn’t mediate the relationship between hygiene & ambiance and tourist satisfaction. Smart PLS 3.0 was applied to analyse the data following the quantitative method.