A Study on Push and Pull Factors of Consumers Purchase Decision

to Stay in Boutique Hotel Melaka, Malaysia

Syuhaidah Hamdi

, Taufik Zamri

, Zahira Aziz

and Liyana Rohizad

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor,

Malaysia

Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

syuhaidah.hamdi@gmail.com, taufik2009@salam.uitm.edu.my

Keywords: Boutique hotels, push and pull factor, purchase decision, Malaysia.

Abstract: Boutique hotel is one of the tourist lodging in Malaysia and Melaka which has been growth sporadic in the

hotel industry. With the unique design and theme, it can attract many tourist from over the world to

experience themselves in the difference type of accommodation. Thus, the research conducted to identify

the push and pull factor that motivate consumer to visit boutique hotel and determine the most agreeable

factors towards purchase decision of boutique hotels. The push motivation factor that been examine are

uniqueness seeking, interpersonal experience / novelty, social factor, achievement, relaxation and safety.

The pull motivation are site value, decoration and theme, exotic atmosphere, different culture and

entertainment. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed and 116 valid respondent were collected in

four boutique hotel which is Venus Boutique Hotel, Ginger flower Boutique Hotel, Jonker Boutique Hotel

and JW Boutique Hotel in Melaka. The valid questionnaire will be further analyzed using the SPSS to

measure the most agreeable factors (push and pull) towards consumer purchase decision to stay in the

boutique hotel.

1 INTRODUCTION

Tourism is an economic powerhouse that has

become the service industry of the new millennium.

During the past decade, the international

accommodation sector witnessed the evolution of

different types of tourist lodging all over the world

(Timothy and Teye, 2009). In the past twenty years,

market change, shifting production and varying

guest trends have encouraged product differentiation

in the hotel industry (Timothy and Teye, 2009).

Customers have begun to prefer unique experiences.

The newest concept in the hotel market today is the

boutique (Hartesvelt, 2006).

Boutique hotel is a niche market started in North

America and the United Kingdom to describe the

modern and luxurious design along with quirky hotel

environments (Olga, 2009). Hoener and Swarbrooke

(2005) identified the emergence of boutique hotels

as one of the most interesting developments in the

hospitality sector of the leisure industry. Similarly,

the emergence of boutique hotel as a new segment of

accommodation has becoming popular in Malaysia

especially in the states of Melaka. There are four

boutique hotels located in the state of Melaka

according to Malaysian Association Hotel (MAH).

There are Venus Boutique Hotel, Ginger flower

Boutique Hotel, Jonker Boutique Hotel, and JW

Boutique Hotel. As Melaka has been officially

recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 7

July 2008, boutique hotels have become a new trend

of lodging business in the historical area (Ng and

Jessica, 2012). Although boutique hotels have

captured the market, its accommodation concept and

definition are still indistinct. Limited study has

investigated consumer motivation in the context of

boutique hotels (Tao Wang Yi Luo Liang Rebecca

Tang, 2015), even though there is significant number

of boutique hotel exist throughout Malaysia (Ariffin

et al., 2015). Moreover, Keulen et al. (2002) stated

that boutique hotels are still new and

underdeveloped in the Malaysia market and these

hotels are mostly family-owned or small-scale

owned business. Therefore, this study will look into

the push and pull factor that lead to consumer

purchase decision to stay in boutique hotel.

Hamdi, S., Zamri, T., Aziz, Z. and Rohizad, L.

A Study on Push and Pull Factors of Consumers Purchase Decision to Stay in Boutique Hotel Melaka, Malaysia.

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business, and Philanthropy (ICIEBP 2017) - Transforming Islamic Economy and Societies, pages 509-514

ISBN: 978-989-758-315-5

509

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review will focus on definition of

boutique hotel, consumer motivation, purchase

decision and conceptual framework for this research.

2.1 Boutique Hotel

Boutique hotel were invented in the early 1980s and

today the boutique hotel sector is growing

worldwide and it is an example of customer

experience differentiation because guest are treated

with personalized service (Arifin et al., 2015). The

universal definition of boutique hotel is still being

debated among scholars (Gao, 2012). However,

according to Agget, 2007; Henderson, 2011,

boutique hotel may only have a maximum number

of 100 rooms. Besides, according to the Victorino et

al. (2005), boutique hotel can be referred to as a

unique or special type of accommodation, which

feature a particular style décor, modern, minimalist

or heritage, and offer additional lifestyle amenities.

Boutique hotel also can be described based on the

pricing, motivation of the host, and tenure of

business (i.e. age) and so on (Mcintosh and Siggs,

2005). With this definition of boutique hotel, it can

describe the boutique hotel is one of the unique hotel

with a high technology use to attract more people to

stay there.

The majority of researchers have reached

consensus regarding the most important in defining

characteristics of boutique hotels and it have been

indicate in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Characteristic of boutique hotel.

Characteristic

Definition

Size

Boutique hotels are generally

smaller in size than traditional

hotels, with less than 100 rooms

(Erkutlu and Chafra, 2005). The

majority of boutique hotels are

privately owned, independent hotels,

thereby contributing to their

individual and unique character

(McIntosh and Siggs, 2005). Lim

and Endean, (2009) disagree

claiming that the ownership of

boutique hotels is evenly split

among private and group

enterprises.

Quality

In every aspect of boutique hotels-

food and beverage, interior design,

services provided et cetera – the aim

is to reach or even surpass the

common quality standards laid out.

According to Agget (2007) and

Characteristic

Definition

McIntosh et al., (2005), client are

attracted to boutique hotels because

of their quality image.

Appealing

location

Boutique hotels are generally found

in trendy neighborhoods of

suburban areas or city centres (Lim

and Endean, 2009; Albazzaz et al.,

2003). Nowadays, the concept is

also introduced in rural locations

and resort destinations.

Architecture

and Design

Boutique hotels are commonly

situated in historical building and

sites or building with interesting

architectural aspects (Agget, 2007;

McIntosh et al., 2005; Lim and

Endean, 2009). Furthermore, the

interior is tailored to the personality

of the building with stylish, deluxe,

design furniture; sometimes themes

are incorporated as well, for

example the decoration of each

room might be based upon the

works of a well-known painter (Lim

and Endean, 2009; Erkutlu and

Chafra, 2005).

Service

Boutique hotel have a high staff-to-

guest ratio, allowing them to

provide a personalized service (Lim

and Endean, 2009; Erkutlu and

Chafra, 2005). Guest can be

attended to 24/7 by the hotel staff,

giving each guest a special and

unique feeling throughout his/her

stay. Interaction between staff and

guests is more familiar, creating a

more relaxed and homely

environment (Agget, 2007;

McIntosh et al., 2005). Furthermore,

high-tech amenities such as high-

speed Internet access, cordless

phones, CD players, libraries of

music and books are offered

(Albazzaz et al., 2003)

2.2 Consumer Motivation

Motivation refers to “the reasons underlying

behavior” (Guay et al., 2010). According to the

Gredler, Broussard and Garisson (2004) state that

motivation is “the attribute that moves us to do or

not to do something”. It can lead toward willingness

and drives individual toward something and take

some actions in daily life. Motivation also involves a

beliefs, values, perceptions, interests and action of

the individual.

Leiper (1990) framework on push-pull theory is

one of the foundations for understanding tourist

ICIEBP 2017 - 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business and Philanthropy

510

motivations. According to Crompton (1979), push

factors describe the drive of an individual to

participate in specific activities, or the internal

“igniter” that propels an individual to taken actions.

Crompton added that push motivation can be seen as

the desire for prestige, rest and relaxation,

excitement, health and fitness, adventure and social

interaction, family togetherness, and escape.

According to Iso-Aloha (1982), escaping and

seeking are two basic dimensions of touristic

behaviour. These attributes may lead to tourist

purchase behaviour and destination choice.

Pull effect are positive factors that attract

prospective migrants to a particular destination, such

as better employment opportunities, higher incomes,

or a comfortable environment (Bogue, 1969).

According to Kassean and Mauritius (2013),

destination should provide unique and distinct

attractions to visitor regarding pull factor. Forces

that attract an individual to choose a specific product

or services can be describe as pull factors (Li et al.,

2013). Novelty and education can be significant pull

factor (Crompton, 1979). However, another pull

factor has been added by Yuan and McDonald

(1990) which are budget, wilderness, culture and

history, cosmopolitan environment, ease of travel,

facilities and hunting.

2.3 Purchase Decision

The constant change of the travel industry from

mega-aircraft to small boutique hotels are directly

engaged by demand of customer in the current

market which is determined by the price sensitivity

and other socio-demographic factors. Many

researcher from different field including social

psychology (Ajzen, 1991; Armitage and Conner,

2001), festival and event (Horng et al., 2013; Kim et

al., 2011) and tourism (Hsu, 2012; Yamada and Fu,

2012) have extensively referenced and successfully

used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to

understand motivational influences on behavioral

intensions and behaviors. According to Ajzen

(1991), explaining human behavior in all its

complexity is a difficult task. Ajzen (1991) specify

that extent to which individuals view a particular

behavior positively (attitude), think significant

others want them to engage in the behavior of

(perceived behavioral control), serves as direct

antecedents of the strength of their intention to carry

out the behavior (Ajzen, 1991).

3 METHODOLOGY

The main objective in this research is to identify the

push and pull factor that can motivate consumer to

visit boutique hotel and towards the purchase

decision of consumer to stay at boutique hotel. This

is a quantitative research design with a questionnaire

as instrumentation. This research had focused on

guest who stayed at the boutique hotels Melaka

which are Jonker Boutique Hotel, Ginger flower

Boutique Hotel, JW Boutique Hotel and Venus

Boutique Hotel which registered under Malaysia

Association of Hotel (MAH). 400 questionnaire

have been distributed but only 116 were valid

questionnaire to use for the analysis. Therefore, the

response rate was 30.2 %.

This research used close ended self -

administered questionnaire for the actual study and

online survey questionnaire for the pilot study. Data

gathered from the questionnaire was possess and

analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences (SPSS). A descriptive analysis was used

including means, standard deviation, frequencies and

percentage and describe the data distribution.

Cronbach Alpha was run to test the reliability of the

instrument. The regression have been used to

analyze the most agreeable factor of push and pull

motivation factor that are lead to the purchase

decision to stay in boutique hotel among tourists.

4 RESULTS

The result revealed that the majority of the

respondent were female which is 77 (66.4%) and

male indicated 39 (33.6%), the highest frequency of

age 18-25 years old is 41 respondent (35.3%) and

age 56-65 is the least which is 5 (4.3%). The highest

frequency for education level is college degree

which is 68 (58.6%) and lowest is master degree 17

(14.7%), income under RM 2,000 is 47 (40.5%) is

the highest and lowest frequency is tied between RM

6,500- RM 8,000 and RM 8,000- RM 9,000 which

both have 3 (2.6%) and majority of occupation

sector is student which is 41 (35.5%) ad least is

retired 3 (2.6%).

Questionnaire were using items adapted from

Tao Wang, Yi Luo and Liang Rebecca Tang (2015),

Yoon and Uysal (2003), and Mandy Agget (2007),

the reliability analysis is conducted. The reliability

analysis showed that the instrument used was found

reliable based on the Cronbach alpha. The reliability

scores ranging from 0.522 to 0.899. As a whole

instrument in questionnaire, the reliability scores

based on standardized item is 0.920, n=41.

A Study on Push and Pull Factors of Consumers Purchase Decision to Stay in Boutique Hotel Melaka, Malaysia

511

Table 2: Push and pull factors that motivate the consumers

to stay in boutique hotels.

Push Factors

Attributes

Mean

Uniqueness Seeking

18.00

Interpersonal Experience, Novelty

9.80

Social Networking, Social Interaction,

Knowledge/ Education, Exciting

18.67

Achievement, Recognition and Prestige

9.12

Relaxation, Escape, Away from home,

And Seeing

13.90

Safety/ Fun (IV)

6.12

Pull Factors

Site Value, Interesting town and village

0.847

Decoration and Theme

0.861

Exotic Atmosphere

0.720

Different Culture, Arts and Crafts

0.877

Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping

Opportunities

0.637

A multi regression was built to determine the

influences factor between push and pull factor

(independent variables) and consumer purchase

decision (dependent variables). The model was

significant [F (2,113) = 2.828, p  0.10] with the

predictors explaining 4.8% of the variation between

push and pull factor that influenced on consumers

purchase decision to stay in boutique hotel in

Melaka, Malaysia. Thus, in terms of the agreement

ranks, push factor (β = .14, p  0.10) made most

contribution to the model compared to other

attributes.

The push and pull factor made statistically

contribution to consumer purchase decision to stay

at the boutique hotel with push factor (β = .14, p 

.10) and pull factor (β = .10, p  .10). From this

result, there are possibilities that the push factor

(uniqueness seeking, interpersonal

experiences/novelty, social networking, social

interaction, knowledge/education, exciting,

achievement, recognition and prestige, relaxation,

escape, away from home and seeing, safety and fun)

play important role to influenced consumer on

purchase decision to stay at boutique hotel. The

volume of push factor possesses stronger impact on

the consumer purchase decision. Below are Anova

table that explain the result:

Table 3: Table ANOVA.

Model

Sig.

Regression

2.828

0.063

Residual

113

9.80

Total

115

18.67

Note:

Dependent variable: Purchase decision

Predictors (constant): Push and pull motivation

Table 4: The influenced of push and pull factor of

consumer purchase decision to stay in boutique hotel

Melaka, Malaysia.

SE B

(Constant)

2.94

0.53

0.00

Push

.17

.14

Pull

.13

.14

.10

Note: R

= .048, *p< .10

5 CONCLUSION AND

DISCUSSION

Based on the result, it is revealed that push factor

possesses stronger impact on the consumer purchase

decision rather than pull factor. This is due to the

three elements in the push factor which is

uniqueness seeking, interpersonal experience and

social networking compared only two elements in

pull factor which is site value and decoration and

theme that can satisfy several levels of human needs

(Maslow, 1943). According to Tao Wang, Yi Luo

and Liang Rebecca Tang (2015), uniqueness seeking

and decoration and theme are used to satisfy the

esteems need while interpersonal experience and

social networking show that consumers have the

belongings needs. Consumer purchase decision have

been made when consumers satisfy their lower level

of needs (psychological need and safety), they will

further pursue to the higher level of needs

(belonging, esteem, and self-actualization) according

to the hierarchy of needs in Maslow (1943). This

shows it related between the need of human in life

with the push factor that will contributed to the

consumer purchase decision to stay at boutique

hotel. Social networking are consistent with previous

studies (Bogari, Crowther and Marr, 2003). Exciting

ICIEBP 2017 - 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business and Philanthropy

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attributes also consistent with the finding of previous

studies which suggested exciting is one of the

traditional motivational factors of the tourism

experience (Loker and Perdue, 1992; Kozak, 2002).

For the future research, it is recommended for

the researcher to focus on the other types of hotels or

maybe other topic on boutique hotels. In addition,

other scholars might consider using additional push

and pull items for analysis. The researcher could

employ other theories or framework rather than

using push and pull theory as the foundation of

testing consumer motivations, which may provide

different implications.

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