Development of Creative Tourism Resources of Pathumthani Province to Accommodate ASEAN Tourists

Abstract

          The objectives of this study included (1) to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and tourism behavior of the tourists in Pathumthani Province, (2) to investigate local tourism resources and creative tourism in Pathumthani to accommodate the tourists from the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), (3) to examine the relationship between local tourism resources and creative tourism in Pathumthani and lastly (4) to explore the approaches to creative tourism resources development in Pathumthani to accommodate the tourists from the AEC. This is a quantitative survey research using the questionnaire as the research instrument to collect data. The sample included a total of 400 Thai tourists traveling to Pathumthani. The Simple Random Sampling or Convenience Sampling was adopted. The Item Objective Congruence Index (IOC) was 0.899. The reliability of tourist resources and creative tourism was 0.946 and 0.951, respectively. The statistics implemented included frequency, percentage, mean and deviation, Chi-square (χ²) t-test (Independent sample F-test) ANOVA (One-way Analysis of Variance), or Brown Forsyth, Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) or Dennett's T3, and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The results showed as follows.

1. Sex, age, marital status, religion, education level, occupation and average monthly income were correlated with aim of travel in Pathumthani at the significance level of .01. The highest education level and average monthly income were correlated with duration of travel in Pathumthani at the significance level of .01. The occupation was correlated with the duration of travel in Pathumthani at the significance level of .05. The age, marital status, religion, education level, occupation and average monthly income were correlated with the cost of travel in Pathumthani at the significance level of .01. The occupation was correlated to the cost of travel in Pathumthani at the significance level of .05. Sex, age, marital status, religion, education level, occupation and average monthly income were correlated with tourism activities in Pathumthani at the significance level of .01. The religion, education level, occupation and average monthly income were correlated with receiving tourism information in Pathumthani at the significance level of .01. The age was correlated with receiving tourism information in Pathumthani at the significance level of .05.
2. Tourists with different religion, age, and average monthly income were of the different opinion on tourism resources of Pathumthani in accommodating the AEC tourists at the significance level of .01 and .05. The Tourists with different sex, marital status, education level and occupation were of the similar opinions on tourism resources of Pathumthani in accommodating the AEC tourists overall at the significance level of .05.
3. Tourists with different age, religion, education level, and average monthly income were of different opinion on creative tourism of Pathumthani in accommodating the AEC tourists overall at the significance level of .05 and .01. The Tourists with different sex, marital status and occupation were of the similar opinion on creative tourism in Pathumthani overall at the significance level of .05.
4. Approaches to the tourism resources development include the tourism activities development, tourist’s participation in community activities, tourist information center establishment, improved standard accommodation, improved infrastructure and facilities, enhanced safety standard, improved public transport, creative tourism guidebook development, local products development, community’s workshop on creative tourism, foreign language skills improvement for employees and personnel in the private and public sector, as well as provincial networking of tourist attractions.