Community Attitude & Support towards Island Tourism Development

The tourism industry has been used as the means to eradicate poverty, due to the ability to generate income, employment as well improve the standard of living. The tourism industry has faced a rapid growth with the support from local communities who were involved in this industry. Positive attitudes from the local residents not only help in boosting tourists' satisfaction levels, but at the same time it contributes to word-of-mouth promotion among visitors. In order to ensure the success of the tourism planning, the involvement and the participation of the local communities in the area is pertinent. This paper endeavors on local community attitudes, benefit and support toward tourism development in Tioman Island. Through a series of descriptive and factor analyses, various useful understandings on the issues of interest revealed based on 229 respondents. The findings indicated that community who obtained direct personal benefit from tourism development does support for future development. Furthermore, the finding also revealed that the community with negative perception do support future tourism development due to the over reliance on this sector as their main income and destination development means.