Factors Affecting Decision Making of Thai Tourists in Travelling Dark Tourism in Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study 1) Level of Thai tourists’ motivation in travelling dark tourism in Thailand and 2) Factors affecting decision making of Thai tourists in travelling dark tourism in Thailand. This research was quantitative research. The questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. This research used purposive sampling technique by distributing questionnaires to Thai tourists interested in dark tourism in Thailand by classifying into 5 regions and 78 Thai tourists each region, totaling 390 Thai tourists. Statistics used included mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression. The research findings revealed that 1) the overall Thai tourist’s dark tourism motivation in Thailand was at the high level (X ̅= 4.16). When considering each component, visiting sites of dark tourism was rated as the first rank, followed by thrill and risk seeking of visiting attractions, visiting memorials, loss acknowledgement, nostalgia tourism, remembrance of tragedy, visiting tourist attractions of dark tourism, visiting sites of disaster, visiting sites of risk areas and pilgrimage trips, respectively and 2) Dark tourism motivations including visiting tourist attractions of dark tourism, visiting pilgrimage sites where deaths or disasters occurred, remembrance of tragedy, loss acknowledgement affected decision making of Thai tourists in travelling dark tourism in Thailand at the statistical significance level of 0.05.