Accessible tourism : an assessment of senior tourists on facilities at cultural and historical tourist attractions in Phuket based on the seven principles of universal design

Abstract

Recently, senior tourists are remarkably increasing. Insufficiency and inefficiency of facilities are noticed amount senior tourists. Accessible tourism is introduced under the concept of universal design. This study aims to assess the importance of the facilities to senior tourists based on the seven principals of universal, to measure the existent facilities in cultural and historical tourist attractions in Phuket meet senior tourist's needs and to find out whether facilities affect overall senior' tourist experiences. Purposive sampling is applied and the respondents who are 55 years old and over to complete the questionnaire. Importance and Performance analysis is utilized to analyze the level of the importance of the facilities and the performance of the existent facilities in cultural and historical tourist attractions in Phuket by 36 attributes of facilities and items based on universal design in the area of exit, entrance and pathway, information, service, restroom and toilet, and safety. It founded that facilities related to principle 3 "simple and intuitive" and principle 6 "low physical effort" in the area of safety were mostly concerned. There is a relationship between the importance of facilities with overall senior tourist's experience. Furthermore, there is significant differences between the importance of the facilities and the assessment of the existent facilities among age group. The study is beneficial for destination's developers and others to be more concerned on the design of facilities based on universal design.