Assessing Tourist Destination Image at Beach Destination Post Crisis A Case Study of Koh Tao, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the image of Koh Tao, Surat Thani Province, Thailand asbeach destination after postcrisis, due to murder case in September 2014. The study was conducted with 400 international tourist respondents who visited Koh Tao by convenience and quota sampling. Respondents were chosen based on the statistic of Ministry of Tourism and Sport which were three international tourists from France, Germany, United Kingdom and others, visiting Koh Tao in 2014. The questionnaire asked personal information, information sources, feeling towards Koh Tao, and cognitive factor, and the overall feeling. The questionnaire was collected during November 2014 to January 2015. The statistical analysis package was used to analyze the data. The statistics were consisted of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation, and one-way ANOVA. As hypothesized, the results found that the most of respondents heard about Koh Tao from friend and colleagues followed by family and relatives. In addition, result provides support for the differences between group of tourists with different profiles on the image of Koh Tao. Furthermore, the study was indicating the level of feeling towards the island; the most common words used to explain the tourists feeling was relaxed. Meanwhile, there were twenty common attributes used to find the destination and top cognitive components were beautiful island and least score for safety. The result also supported the third hypothesis that indicated the relationship between cognitive, affective and overall image of Koh Tao. Based on the results of the survey, recommendations can be made for the government, local government authorities, relevant organization and local people. Hence, the ways to improve and develop the infrastructure and should be broaden tourists and visitors to aware the rules and policy.