แนวทางการเพิ่มค่าใช้จ่ายต่อหัวของนักท่องเที่ยวใภาคใต้ฝั่งอ่าวไทย

Abstract

There is an imbalance development in tourism in the South of Thailand. Tourists are overcrowded and concentrated in well-known tourist attractions causing an environment degradation and negative impact on tourist attractions in the South of Thailand. It is time to focus on an introduction of price mechanism to filter tourist overflows. Using efficient price mechanism for tourist products would help increase tourist expenditure and attract high quality tourists with high spending level. This research aims to study (1) tourist expenditure and tourist willingness to pay for travelling to Aao-Thai Southern coast of Thailand. (2) factors determining tourist expenditure and willingness to pay for travelling to Aao-Thai Southern coast of Thailand. (3) guideline to increase travel expenditure of tourists in Aao-Thai Southern coast of Thailand. (4) marketing recommendations to travel expenditure of tourists in Aao-Thai Southern coast of Thailand. This study use Mix Method research methodology covering areas in Chumpon, Surat Thani, Nakorn Sri Thammarat, and Phattalung. 824 samples using accidental sampling comprise of 680 Thai tourists and 144 foreign tourist were interviewed with questionnaires. The results reveal that age, gender, nationality, income, number of travelling days and marketing strategies are key factors which determine tourist expenditures. Regarding tourist willingness to pay several factors determine tourist expenditures such as gender, age, number of travelling days under different hypothetical circumstances. The study suggests several guidelines to increase tourist expenditure based on the finding of factor determines tourist expenditure and willingness to pay such as (1) promoting tourist expenditure in potential sub-item of the expenditure (2) upgrade price level of tourism products (3) expanding and penetrating first visitor market (4) increasing number of overnight stays. Marketing strategy recommendation such as promotion of Thai tourist expenditure, marketing activities to divert tourists from overcrowded area to other attractions and promotion of responsible and sustainable tourism would help increase tourist expenditure in Aao-Thai Southern Coast of Thailand.