The aim of this paper is to determine tourists’ perceptions on spiritual experience, brand image,
cultural attributes and service quality they experienced in Kota Bharu, the capital and administration
centre of Kelantan, Malaysia. Kota Bharu was declared an Islamic City in 2005. It has many mosques,
various museums, unique architectural old buildings and palaces. As the number of tourist arrivals to
Kelantan is encouraging and contributing to the state income; it is important to examine what these
tourists perceive during their stays in Kota Bharu Islamic City. Variance Based Structural Equation
Modelling technique of Partial Least Square (PLS) was employed. The findings show that all the
variables are significantly influencing tourists’ perception except for service quality. In other words,
tourists’ perceptions of Kota Bharu are positively related to spirituality, brand destination and cultural
attributes. Tourists’ perceptions play a crucial role as this will affect the future tourist arrivals in the
state. Thus, the findings of the study will be useful in helping policy planners to understand how
tourists perceived Kota Bharu and design policies to increase tourism receipts and to preserve tourism
attributes.