Enjoyment, Service Quality and Attitude Towards the Intention to Use Public Transport: A Case of Tourists in Kuala Lumpur

Authors

  • Nabihah Kamarudin Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
  • Syed Muhammad Rafy Syed Jaafar Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v13.n2.1638

Keywords:

Public Transport, Service Quality, Enjoyment

Abstract

Public transport plays a critical role in facilitating urban tourism mobility. However, in Kuala Lumpur, both locals and tourists predominantly rely on private vehicles for intra-city travel. While previous research has largely emphasized improving public transport service quality, limited attention has been given to understanding the enjoyment that drive tourists to choose public transport. This study addresses this gap by investigating the enjoyment and service quality in influencing tourists’ use of public transport in Kuala Lumpur. A structured questionnaire survey was administered to 440 tourists who had used public transport during their visit, with data analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS. The findings reveal that service quality does not serve as a direct determinant of tourists’ intention to use public transport. Instead, enjoyment is the strongest predictor of intention to public transport use. Additionally, the analysis identified attitude as a mediating variable between service quality and behavioural intention. These results suggest that beyond operational improvements, public transport operators should leverage the experiential and leisure-related aspects of public transport—such as cityscape views and cultural encounters—to enhance its appeal among tourists. This study contributes to the transportation literature by integrating enjoyment as factor in understanding tourists' public transport usage behaviour.

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Published

2026-04-28

How to Cite

Kamarudin, N., & Syed Jaafar , S. M. R. (2026). Enjoyment, Service Quality and Attitude Towards the Intention to Use Public Transport: A Case of Tourists in Kuala Lumpur. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability, 13(2), 201–211. https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v13.n2.1638