ภาพลักษณ์การท่องเที่ยวของจังหวัดเชียงใหม่ในมุมมองของนักท่องเที่ยวชาวไทย

Abstract

This independent study aims to examine the tourism image of Chiang Mai Province from the perspective of Thai tourists. The concept of tourism image is divided into 5 aspects, consisting of Experience, Memorable, Environment, General Structure and the Variety of tourist Attractions. A questionnaire was used as a tool to collect the data from 400 Thai tourists traveling to Chiang Mai Province. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics namely, Frequencies, Percentages and Means. Also using Inferential Statistics to compared the differences between the image of tourism in Chiang Mai Province in all 5 aspects classified by age group, hometown, and information sources used in tourism planning. The results of the study showed that most respondents were female, aged between 31 and 40 years old and hold a bachelor's degree. Occupational status was employee of a private companies, average monthly income was 20,001 - 31,000 baht, single and resided in the northern region. They have been traveled to Chiang Mai Province 3 times or more. Travelling period was on weekends (Saturday-Sunday) with a family. The traveling method to Chiang Mai was by private car. They used motorcycles as transportation during their stay in Chiang Mai. Chose to stay in hotels as accommodation. The average cost per trip to Chiang Mai was 5,0001 baht or more. Reserved hotels in advance before traveling. Received information on tourist attractions by using reviews on various websites/pages as information for researching to plan the trip to Chiang Mai Province. Respondents had opinions on the tourism image of Chiang Mai Province was at high level. The level of opinions can be sorted by aspects as follows: the Variety of tourist Attractions, Experience, Environment, Memorable, and General structure, respectively. When testing the hypothesis by classifying by age range, hometown, and information sources used to research for travel planning, it was found that respondents had different opinions on the image of Chiang Mai tourism in some sub-factors. In term of age different in some sub-factors at the statistical significance level of 0.05. Respondents whose domicile was in the northern region and whose domicile was in other regions had opinions on the image of Chiang Mai tourism in terms of Experience, General structure and the Variety of tourist Attraction different in some sub-factors at the statistical significance level of 0.05. Respondents who planned their travel using information from their friends and experiences, used information from advertisements, public relations and reviews on various websites/pages had opinions on the image of Chiang Mai tourism, in terms of Remembering. They differ in some sub-factors at the statistical significance level of 0.05.