FACTORS INFLUENCING TOURIST TO CHOOSE THAILAND AS TRAVEL DESTINATION

Abstract

Tourism is the number 1 revenue in Thailand and the purpose of this research is to analyse factors influencing the tourist choice and decision-making of tourists in choosing Thailand as visit destination via descriptive research. The understanding of tourist choice is defined and the peculiarities of decision-making process are presented. The current situation of tourism in Thailand is examined. The main internal and external factors extract from pull and push motivation that influencing tourist choice are summarised. The analysis of accessibility, culture and destination experience that influence the decision-making of tourists to travel to various types of tourism destinations was conducted. The research is carried out base on quantitative correlations design which includes both primary and secondary data. Secondary data is used to give insight to the topic and assess conclusions. Primary data is collected by surveying the individual tourist who has been to Thailand. Data analysis are analysed via pilot test, factor analysis, reliability test, descriptive statistics, hypothesis test (multiple regression) and one way ANOVA. The research result show that the gender, monthly income and profession of tourist contribute in descriptive statistic part also play an influential attributes in tourist travel behaviour especially in the travel pattern. Smart tourism destinations (STDs), electronic word of mouth (eWOM), accessible tourism, social network sites, cultural events, infrastructure development, entertainment, exotic experience and price are other attributes that contribute to the tourist decision making in choosing Thailand as visit destination.