Tourism is one of the most important industries which contribute to Malaysia’s financial achievement. The state of Sarawak and Sabah or better known as Malaysian Borneo among the foreigners, is one of the destinations in Malaysia which faces strong competition from other established destinations within Malaysia such as Langkawi and Penang and in the neighbourhood such as Indonesia and Singapore. According to the Tourism Malaysia report, Malaysia Tourist Arrivals in 2017 were, 25.9 million, of which, 4.85 million visited Sarawak, making RM8.59 billion in visitor’s receipt while Sabah received 3.63 million tourist arrivals and RM7.76 billion tourism receipts. The Malaysian Tourism Transformation Plan is targeting 36 million foreign visitors to earn at least RM168 billion tourism receipts annually by 2020. The Visit Malaysia 2020 is the key development towards the realisation of this plan, with the aims not only to rally all industry players towards the goal, but is a call to welcome tourists from all over the world to experience Malaysia’s warm hospitality and diverse tourist attractions (Tourism Malaysia, 2018).
With that, there is no doubt that the human resource management is vital in terms of services at the destination especially tourist guides. The current Malaysia Policy make tourist guides as a very promising profession. Working in the front line of tourism, they are leading players in enhancing the image and reputation of tourist destinations. Hence, it is no surprise that they are commonly referred to as “ambassadors” (Holloway, 1998). They are the most influential person the visitor will meet on tour and plays the important role to raise the standards of the clients’ tourism experience. Therefore tourist guides play an utmost important role as the bridge between tourists and the various destinations within the states and very much crucial for the success of a tour program, especially to the satisfaction of tourists. Some researchers describe tourist guides as the “soul” of the tourism industry as they play an essential part in its success by delivering high-quality service to tourists (Kong, Cheung, & Baum, 2009). Besides, the tourist guide may well be the reason the visitor will decide to return and introduce tourism products to their friends and family because skillfull tourist guides will improve the competition capacity for tourism companies or destinations (Huang et al., 2010).
In Malaysia, the tourist guides’ roles are spelled out under the Tourism Industry Act 1992. All tourist guides in Malaysia must obtain a license from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC) in order to be able to guide within the region or destination in Malaysia. The license were divided into two categories namely local nature tourist guide (also kown as Green Badge License) and city tourist guide (also known as Blue Badge License). As of November 2017, there were 442 registered tourist guides in Sarawak and 2305 in Sabah (MOTAC, 2017). There had been decreased in numbers from 2013 to 2015. The decreased in applicants could be due to reasons such as inactive tour guides because there are not many assignments given to them which correspond to the decline in tourist arrival; low and unstable income as tour guides made it difficult to attract new tour guides to join the profession, hence, some prefer to be freelance guides; unwillingness of the travel agents to engage registered tour guides because of additional cost; due to the fees to attend a tour guide course conducted by MOTAC; and probably due to the introduction of new policy by the ministry in terms of licensing. In October 2014, all holders of valid tourist guide licence are required to undergo a conversion course in order to obtain the Regional Specific Tourist Guide (hereafter known as RSTG), which is Gold in colour. Under this program, those with Blue badge were required to take the Green badge course and vice versa. The purpose of this migration is to have a standardise licence throughout Malaysia. RSTG course will be evaluating based on written exam and practical assessment after a 50 hours course (Blue badge) and 150 hours (Green badge). The cost for 1-week RSTG Course (Blue badge) is RM1050.00 and for 3-week RSTG course (green badge) is RM2050.00. The conversion of badges raised many issues among the tour guides especially the question of who will bear the cost. As of December 2016, there were 112 RSTG in Sarawak whereas 749 in Sabah. RSTG licence holders are allowed to guide only in Sarawak and Sabah respectively. This applies to other states as well.
The profession as a tourist guide may have been one of the most challenging but received less attention as described by Mak et al. (2011), tour guiding is “the ‘Cinderella’ of the tourism industry: attractive, useful, but often neglected. Previous researchers have addressed the issue of Malaysian tour guides job satisfaction but only focused in West Malaysia and failed to address the RSTG job satisfaction specifically and no comparative studies were ever conducted. Thus, this research is necessary in order to have a deeper understanding of RSTG job satisfactions as it would be beneficial to tourism practitioners to understand the factors, because such an appreciation may ultimately assist in improving tourism services both in Sarawak and Sabah. Job Motivation and satisfaction are always positively related, just like two sides of the same coin. Job performance, commitment and productivity of an employee are all have direct impact to what motivate them and how satisfied they are with their jobs. Therefore, this study will focus on investigating the RSTG job motivation to understand the behaviour or drive of the tourist guides which ultimately translate into their job satisfaction. Besides, this studies also to find out difference in the level of job satisfaction between the RSTG in Sarawak and Sabah. Finally, the findings will be used to make suggestion to relevant authority for enhancing the satisfaction level of RSTG.
Literature review
Tour Guide
The International Associations of Tour managers and the European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (1998) defined a tour guide as “… a person who guides groups or individual visitors from abroad or from the home country around the monuments, sites and museums of a city or region: to interpret in an inspiring and entertaining manner, in the language of the visitor’s choice, the cultural and natural heritage and environment.” In Malaysia, a person require a license to practice as a guide which is issued by MOTAC. A licensed tourist guide means a person who attends and pass the Local Nature Tourist Guide Course for local nature tourist guide license and Basic Tourist Guide Course for city tourist guide license (MOTAC, 2018). Apart from the license, other criterias such as skills, knowledge and understanding are vital in tour guide performance.
Tourist guides are the necessary links between visitors and its tourism destination and are responsible for the overall impression and satisfaction offered by the destination (Ap & Wong, 2001). As mentioned by Zhang & Chow (2004), they are the front-line staff that provides the ‘moment of truth’ for tourist which can make or break their trip. In short, they are the key personnel in tourism industry (Ting et al., 2012). However, guiding is not just about giving people facts about a destination but requires a variety of amazing skills, sound subject knowledge and they should possess a range of personal attributes. A number of researchers have paid attention to the roles of tour guide in drawing the tourist experience. Tour guide is known as disseminator of information (Halloway, 1981; Cohen, 1985; Huang et al., 2010; Yamada, 2011; Weiler & Walker, 2014); as a people mover to assist people moving between two localities (Pastoreli, 2003); a social catalyst in facilitation a positive social setting between group members (Bras, 2000); a cultural host to facilitates a good host-guest relationship; a motivator to encourage appropriate use of tourism resources (Huang et al., 2010; Yamada, 2011; Weiler & Walker, 2014). Other researches shared the views that the role of guides in providing information, offering clarifications, and developing interpretations has become a research theme in and of itself (Ap and Wong, 2001; Cohen, 1985; Dahles, 2002).
Job Motivation and Job Satisfaction
Previous research revealed that job motivation and satisfaction are important theoretical as well as practical issues. Delobelle (2011) described motivation as the “conscious or unconscious stimulus, incentive or motives for action toward a goal resulting from psychological or social factors, the factors giving the purpose or direction to behaviour”. Luthan (1998) defines motivation as, “a process that starts with a physiological deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal incentive”. In the job context, motivation can be defined as “willingness to exert and maintain an effort to succeed at work, achieve the organization’s goals or to help the team reach its goals” (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Thus, motivation can easily be understood as factors that give path to the tour guides to choose guiding as a profession in the first place. In this case, we are more interested to know what motivate the tourist guides to convert their license. On the other hand, job satisfaction is regarded by most as positively related to productivity and performance. It is very important to make clear the meaning of job satisfaction in this study as there are many definitions of satisfactions. Generally, job satisfaction is regarded as “how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs” (Spector, 1997). In the context of this research, job satisfaction represents the work environment and their perceptions of the job after successfully licensed as RSTG. Job satisfaction is describing by Locked (1976) as closely associated to what motivates and de-motivates employees.
The phenomenology of job satisfaction has received so much attention by both academic and practitioners in various fields. Several common theories underpinning the concept of job satisfaction include the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943), Herzberg’s two factor motivator-hygiene theory (Herzberg, 1966) and the Equity Theory (Adams, 1963). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is probably the best-known motivation theory in the literature to date in which he classified human needs into five categories (physiological, safety, social, self-esteem and self-actualization). He claims that, in order for a higher need to be satisfied (self-esteem and self-actualization), the needs that are ranked as lower needs (physiological, safety and social) must first be satisfied. Herzberg’s two-factor theory presents two perspectives on satisfaction and dissatisfaction on the job which can be divided into two categories namely hygienic factors and motivational factors. One of the most central process theories of motivation is Adams’ equity theory which consists of four core elements namely person, comparison of others, inputs and outcomes. He concludes that an individual is normally motivated by balanced results of input and output.