Guidelines for promoting the perception of cultural tourism image in secondary cities of Thai tourists Chaiyaphum province

Abstract

          Promoting tourism in the secondary cities is one of strategies to stimulate Thai tourism and build confidence of Thai,and foreign tourists during the easing COVID-19 restrictions. The objectives of this research article areto study the perceptions of Thai tourists towards an image of cultural tourism in secondary cities in Chaiyaphum province and to present the guidelines for promoting the cultural tourism image. A mixed method study using an accidental sample is implemented and analyzed with descriptive and inference statistics. Qualitative research is done in the second phrase to purposively interview the key informants. Data isanalyzed with descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the first perception of Thai tourists was the famous cultural tourism resources followed by thelocal food. The results of comparative study show that tourists with different personal factors, including genders, age, education, and income had different perceptions in every fields withstatistical significance of 0.05. An agreement of the research results issummarized to be guidelines for promoting the perception of cultural tourism image, which are 1) developing learning and creative activity resources and 2) promoting the perceptionsof cultural tourism in food tourism.