Tourist Perceptions to Cultural Identity: The Case of Thai Experience

Abstract

Tourism is seen as one of the main drivers of socio-economic progress in both developed and developing regions. Many developing countries perceive tourism as a fast track to economic growth. Thailand tourism's industry contributes significantly to the Thai economy, which receives around 7% of its GDP from international tourism revenue. Thailand is often viewed as a wondrous kingdom, featuring temples, wildlife and tropical islands. Visitors are also attracted by its history, culture, modern capital city and reputation as the "land of smiles". Entrepreneurs in Thailand try to capitalize on these characteristics to create products or services to serve tourists. However, good design and good quality are not enough to survive in a competitive market. The make up of customers is constantly evolving and they are becoming more discerning and demanding. Thus, it is important to work closely with customers to make sure that products and services fulfill their needs and requirements, and to understand customers through study of their behaviors and preferences. This study explored customer perceptions of Thai cultural identity, and employed an emotional design approach to find out how products may fulfill customer perceptions and requirements. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire then statistically analyzed using the principal component analysis (PCA) approach. Results illustrate the relationship between customer perception and Thai cultural identity, and can be used to guide entrepreneur decision making to create new products or services following the Thai cultural identity and meeting of perceptions of customers.

A comparative analysis of hotel staff opinions on the positive effects of tourists by demographic variables: The cases of Antalya and Eskişehir provinces

“…Özel's (2010) study shows that the socio-economic and travel behavior characteristics of various tourist types differ from each other. In addition, Kongprasert and Virutamasen (2015) assert that the simple delivery of good product design and good quality in the tourism market is insufficent for survival in such a competitive market, and that by utilizing an emotional design approach, tourists' behavioral patterns and preferences must be examined so as to ensure that the products and services to be delivered will match their expectations. Therefore, being aware of the various types of tourists is helpful for hotel staff.…”

Anxiety and social experience stressors of LGBT in Thailand

“…The report "Being LGBT in Asia" for Thailand brings up the conflict between the portrayal of the country by the Tourism Authority as "...a gay paradise but where discussions of sexuality in society are still taboo…" (48) As mentioned before, one of the most important economic sectors in Thailand is the tourism sector and Thailand makes the most out of the perception that foreigners have in order to turn it into a driving force for socio-economic progress. The symbolism and iconography that tourists associate with Thailand and speaks on how to turn those characteristics into products and services to attract tourists (25) . The aspect of catering to LGBT tourists to attract them to a so called "paradise" seems to be dependent on this strategy, with other reports on how the government plans to increase the tourism sector's contribution to the country's GDP from 20% in 2019 to 40% by 2030 (45) combined with how the LGBT's pink money tourism makes up almost 2% of the economy as a whole (11) .…”