Developing A tourist friendly destination from the perspective of domestic tourists

The introduction of tourist friendly destination concept is recognised as one of the strategies for city tourism. This is because cities play significant roles as an ‘entry and exit point’ and centre for tourism activities, for both the international and domestic tourists. In fact, in many developing countries, domestic tourists have contributed significant numbers of tourist arrivals, yet what signify their needs are still unexplored. Considering that many cities have under-developed their potentials for the purpose of domestic tourism, it is therefore viable to consider the domestic tourist perspectives. This study was aimed to develop a tourist friendly destination concept in city tourism, from the perspective of domestic tourists and Kuala Lumpur as a case study. A total of 420 respondents was chosen through a purposive sampling method. Respondents were selected from the six sub-sectors: food and beverage, transportation, accommodation, shopping, recreation, and theme park. The results reveal that the tourist friendly destination was ranked as a friendly level with an overall mean value range of 3.61 to 4.04. This study has shown that in city tourism, the tourist friendly destination concept is acceptable among domestic tourists. It is suggested that this concept is applicable at both national and state levels as it caters both the tourism provider desires and goals, and also fulfils the domestic tourists’ needs.