The COVID-19 outbreak has drastically altered the behavior of tourists, posing a significant challenge to countries that heavily rely on the tourism industry to develop sustainable policies. This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to analyze the effects of four variable groups on travel decisions during the pandemic. These groups include tourism potential, tourism logistics efficiency, the impact of COVID-19 on tourism potential, and the impact of COVID-19 on logistics efficiency. We collected data from a sample group of 943 foreign tourists visiting Thailand through online and on-site questionnaires. Our findings reveal that accommodation and information flow were the most significant factors affecting travel decisions during the pandemic, while the mode of transport had minimal impact. Based on our results, we recommend that post-COVID-19 tourism policies focus on improving accommodation quality and hygiene standards and building networks that offer comprehensive and up-to-date information about the pandemic. Our proposed approach is more efficient and cost-effective than mobilizing resources across all tourism industry sectors. It promotes sustainable tourism recovery planning while minimizing adverse effects on the community. These results are particularly relevant to stakeholders and policymakers who have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and need to develop effective tourism policies.

Chinese government has developed transport infrastructure rapidly under Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) strategy. The BRI strategy is China's economic development strategies for expanding trade and cultural influence towards countries in western and eastern regions, including ASEAN. The development of BRI strategy is consists of two main components i.e., (i) the Silk Road Economic Belt, follows the historical overland Silk Road through Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and eventually to Europe, and (ii) the Maritime Silk Road, originates in the South China Sea, passing through the Malacca Strait, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea and extending into the Mediterranean Sea (Chris & Elizabeth, 2015). Due to the BRI strategy, more than 6000 trains made the journey from China to Europe in 2018, which is an increase of 72% compared to 2017. China has sent more than 11,000 freight trains to Europe and back since the BRI strategy was announced in 2013. Railway networks have been constructed under the BRI strategy for connecting 48 Chinese cities with 42 cities in Europe through Asia. There are many railway infrastructures under the BRI strategy. The China – Laos railway (Vientiane–Boten railway) is one of project under the Silk Road Economic Belt that has been developed for serving as a key infrastructure for the economic corridor between the two countries. In nearly future, this railway will be helped to boost trade, investment and tourism for Lao PDR. and south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Vientiane–Boten railway, especially transportation time will attract both travelers and Logistics Service Providers (LSP), which can be reduced time of journey compared with road mode. In this paper, modal shift potential of travelers and freight on Kunming-Bangkok Highway (R3A), AH2, AH8, AH9, AH10, AH12, AH13, and AH18 have been investigated by considering behavioral aspects of long distance travel. Keywords: Mode Split Model, Modal Shift, Vientiane–Boten railway, Travel Behaviour

This paper presents a model capturing the intercity freight mode choice behaviour in high-speed rail system from Bangkok to Chiangmai. The model is developed based on the stated preference data collected from 800 freight operators, wholesaler, retailer, and people. The results show that, when the high-speed rail system from Bangkok to Chiangmai are developing in the future, the suitable products for high-speed rail system are types of an express mail service (EMS), air cargo, gold, jewellery, gold accessories, computer circuit boards, high prices agricultural products such as fruit, and flowers. Most of determining the selling price will fluctuate with the speed of transport and damage impairment of the product. With the application of discrete choice models, the results show that, aside from travel cost and time, loading and unloading, delays time, frequency are statistically significant. The application of model indicated that the holder and freight forwarder which in the line of high-speed rail (Bangkok – Chiangmai) tend to use rail-transport such as double-track rail is 27.71%, high-speed rail is 11.18% and the most is trucks 56.51% which is a policy development point loading and unloading, multimodal transportation efficiency and safety of the portion of the freight high-speed rail increased.

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