Maritime tourism is a niche market that provides maritime nations with an additional source of foreign exchange and employments. However, due to a lack of awareness of the significance of the maritime tourism sector, a very few studies have investigated the problems faced by this sub sector. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify the problems faced by the maritime tourism industry and propose solutions with which to overcome these obstacles. A bibliometric analysis technique was used to scour databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS); with VOS Viewer. The content analysis was carried out and then coded using QSR International's NVivo 12. The paper found that the maritime tourism industry is currently plagued by six major problem clusters. These were classified as (a) governmental and political supports, (b) environmental issues, (c) cooperation among stakeholders, (d) maritime tourism law and policies, (e) technological matters, and (f) maritime tourism knowledge. Therefore, this present study proposes the development of a new market; the smart maritime tourism market; which is the most effective and efficient approach of overcoming the current issues. It is believed that smart maritime tourism will not only benefit maritime nations but also adjacent landlocked nations.

As pillars of logistics, supply chains, and transport networks, seaports have led to a substantial demand for countless economic advantages. The sustainability and competitive advantage of seaport businesses depend on their ability to adapt to changing business requirements, while Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) is a current phenomenon that connects the global market through smart technologies involving cyber-physical systems to overcome global trade uncertainty. However, focusing only on growing economic benefits might lead to an ineffective sustainable implementation of IR 4.0 within a seaport system. Therefore, this paper compares the current status of IR 4.0 global implementation against the current Malaysian seaport system to ensure that the development of seaports in Malaysia is aligned with technological trends and global requirements. In addition, this paper investigates the critical sustainable factors (CSFs) for the implementation of IR 4.0 in Malaysian seaports. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) is used to obtain the data from 13 domain experts, from various maritime stakeholders, which is further analysed by using Thematic Analysis. The result has shown that most seaports have started to initiate a fusion by focusing on IR 4.0 adaptation. In contrast, in Malaysia, the seaports in this country are still behind the global trend and are just starting to explore the concept of IR 4.0 instead of expanding to the next level (global benchmark). The current status and CSFs, for the implementation of IR 4.0 in Malaysian seaports, are presented in comparison to global requirements, and the marginal associations between them are shown. As a conclusion, by comparing a global seaport scenario with Malaysian seaports, the main considerations for sustaining the implementation of IR 4.0 in Malaysian seaports can be discovered.

Seaports enable national and international trade in nearly every country around the globe. The new digital world has led most seaport sectors to fully embrace new technologies and tools to better compete with other seaports. Moreover, such maritime activities have potentially significant effects on regional development. The east coast region in Peninsular Malaysia is less developed than the west coast region. It has caused a significant regional development gap, particularly in infrastructure quality, community services, production volume diversification, job opportunities and rising average wealth. Firstly, this study assesses how economic activities affect regional development in Peninsular Malaysia. Secondly, this study aims to identify the challenges and strategies for resolving the regional development imbalance in Peninsular Malaysia. A semi-structured face-to-face interview with fifteen maritime experts was adopted to achieve the proposed objectives. Interview outcomes helped identify and resolve significant problems and create strategies to facilitate the regional development of Malaysian seaports. IR 4.0: These novel strategies may lead to digitalisation in decision-making methods concerning regional development in the Malaysian seaport sector. Integrating four approaches could increase the regional development progress and facilitate continuous growth for the Malaysian seaport industry. The new findings recommend Malaysian seaport digitalisation through progressive regional development.

Ocean-based countries has more advantages compare to a landlock regions where there face challenges on the access to the oceanography activities. Beyond major maritime trading and transportation business, maritime tourism business is one of the economically contributing sectors for coastal region nations. The main aim of this paper is to (a) identify the role of seaport museum and maritime museum, (b) to explore the benefits of seaport museum and maritime museum towards seaport industry, (c) proposing a framework for the future research direction on seaport tourism as a complementary business opportunity for seaport industry. Bibliometric analysis technique was adopted with VoS viewer, and a content analysis on 30 research articles were performed to derive the results and then coded with NVivo 12 software. The result shows that, there are nine key measurement factors needed to be considered to archive the objectives. Seaport museum and maritime museum are not the same, whereas maritime museum only focuses on all the sea-based artifacts while seaport museum focuses on the specific sea-based artifacts which are in the port limits. Moreover, both the museums encourage the port city development and have a high impact to the seaport revenue generation.

The expansion of urban development and commercial centers within the geographical boundaries of ports and cities has significantly contributed to the growth of national income. However, maritime-based countries face the challenge of staying competitive in the dynamic port-city landscape. To address these issues, this paper employs a bibliometric approach to review existing literature on port-cities, identifies challenges faced by port-cities as cruise visitor attractions, and proposes a new framework for their sustainable future in the maritime cruise industry. By analysing 73 journal articles through VoS Viewer and employing content analysis with NVivo 12 software, the paper presents a problem-solving guideline framework that can aid nations in tackling major challenges related to port-city development and cruise tourism.