انگیزه بازنشستگی در میان شرکت کنندگان "خانه دوم من در مالزی "

Malaysia My Second Home’ is an international retirement migration programme aimed at attracting the lucrative retiree market to choose Malaysia as their residence. This study implemented the concept of the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) (Pearce, 1991), with a purposeful sample of 30 participants who had retired to Malaysia. Questioning was directed towards their motives for selecting Malaysia and the analysis indicated that the majority of the motivation themes clustered in the seeking of self-fulfilment needs. Among motivation themes discovered are meaningful second life, positive instant thoughts, central travel location, positive retirement book description, food variety, tranquillity and simple life, political stability and security, and ease of communication. The study also revealed a challenge in applying TCL to its findings as some motivational themes simultaneously represent various TCL hierarchies. The theoretical, marketing and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

The retirement location selection is a major decision of the adult years (Schiamberg & McKinney, 2003). For those who intend to retire to other countries, cognate terminologies such as international retirement home schemes, second home and long stay tourism are commonly used (Hall and Müller, 2004 and Williams and Hall, 2002). International retirement migration (IRM) is a form of international human mobility that entails the movement of elderly people (Williams, King, & Warnes, 1997) to places that offer better life quality (Balkir & Kirkulak, 2007). Four main factors that contribute to the growth in international retirement migration are increasing human longevity (Quinn & Burkhauser, 1990), lowering legal retirement ages (Balkir & Kirkulak, 2007), increasing personal wealth (Balkir & Kirkulak, 2007) and changing lifetime mobility patterns (Williams & Hall, 2002). According to the United Nations (2007)'s edition of World Population Ageing, the global population of those over 60 years will double by 2025, from 606 million in 2000 to around 1.2 billion people. Thus, retirees are a lucrative market to tap in the near future. Though studies of IRM within Europe have been extensive (e.g. Balkir and Kirkulak, 2007, Breuer, 2005, Casado-Diaz et al., 2004 and King et al., 1998; Rodriguez et al., 2005, Warnes, 1990, Warnes et al., 1999 and Williams et al., 1997), it is just beginning to receive attention in Asia (Toyota, Bocker, & Guild, 2006). Studies in different jurisdictions are important as there may be some significant differences in retirement motivations and location decision-making in developed countries, compared with the motivation of those who decide to retire in and to developing countries, such as Malaysia. Malaysia introduced the ‘Silver Hair’ programme in 1996 to promote the country as a destination choice for foreigners to retire (Ho & Teik, 2008). The programme was revamped in 2002 as ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H). Compared with the ‘Silver Hair’ programme, MM2H is more liberal in its policy, simultaneously aiming at attracting foreign investments and stimulating income from the tourism, health and education sectors. To date, only Ono (2008) has studied MM2H participants. She found that motivators such as cost, weather, recreation and entertainment opportunities, environment, visa systems, and available elderly care facilities induced Japanese retirees to reside in Malaysia. The main weakness of Ono's (2008) study is that it examined only the motivation of Japanese retirees. Thus, the results explain a single cultural perspective, with limited possibility for generalization. It is the aim of this study to extend the perspective by exploring motivations to retire to Malaysia from different cultures and nationalities. This study critically examines retirees' travel motivation using Pearce's (1991) Travel Career Ladder (TCL) concept. International retirement often involves the movement of people with stable financial means (Rowles & Watkins 1993). Thus, this research envisages that the dominant motivation theme among international retirees in Malaysia is self-actualization or self-fulfilment, the highest TCL level needs. As the Malaysian national government actively promotes ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ programme, these research findings provide invaluable insights to shape future international retirement migration policies and to improve goods and services development that attract retirees. Such knowledge is also potentially valuable to countries that aim to develop similar offers to international retirees. Next, this paper reviews the international retirement migration and travel motivation literature, and TCL as the theoretical base for discussing the findings. The methodology section, which follows the literature review, explains the sampling method and subsequent in-depth interviews. The interview findings and discussion precede the concluding remarks.

The findings of this study contribute both theoretically and practically to the knowledge of international migration research and its interconnections with second home mobility. The paper extends knowledge of international retirement migration motivations through critical application of the Travel Career Ladder (TCL). Among the unique motivation themes discovered are positive instant thoughts, meaningful second life, central travel location, positive retirement book description, food variety, political stability and security, tranquillity and simple life, and ease of communication. This study confirms that the dominant motivation themes among international retirees in Malaysia are clustered within self-fulfilment, the highest TCL motivation level. It provides critical evidence that a single motivation theme may simultaneously exist on the different TCL levels. This suggests that the TCL model may not be the most suitable to explain the retirees' motivation. The study provides some marketing and management insights. It reveals the detailed information required in the marketing of the ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H) programme. The MM2H strategic marketing communications could usefully adopt the positive pull attributes of Malaysia. These are warm climate, affordable living cost, availability of world class healthcare infrastructures, friendly locals, stress-free retirement scheme, peaceful and serene environment, beautiful countryside, political stability and security, variety of food choice, and strategic geographical location. Promoting the country as an ideal retirement destination can be done in several ways. This study discovered that positive retirement book description and retiree promoters are two successful means to attract new MM2H participants. The understanding of travel motivations could facilitate the government and related private organizations in strategic products and services development which could be offered to the international retirees. In conclusion, Malaysia has mapped itself as an international retirement destination through the MM2H programme. The pull factors of the country are strong and could be further strengthened through deeper analysis of the needs and the wants of the participants. The fulfilment of these needs and wants is the basis for the future development of MM2H programme which will ensure that Malaysia remains one of the premier retirement destinations.