Guidelines for Enhancing the Cultural Tourism Marketing in Singburi Province

Abstract

This quantitative research aims to study behavior of Thai tourists in Singburi Province, examine the level of tourist’s satisfaction and expectation toward cultural tourism marketing in Singburi Province, and give guidelines on enhancing cultural tourism marketing in Singburi Province. Four hundred and two Thai tourists who visited Singburi were selected as the samples of this research. The study was conducted through the questionnaire survey which was used as a tool to collect data. The data was analyzed by looking at the frequency, percentage, mean and Standard Deviation. The inferential statistical was Independent Samples t-test method, F-test (One-Way ANOVA) and Least Significant Difference method (LSD). The level of statistical significance of this study was 0.05 by using IPA method. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were female (64.7%), age between 31-40 years old (41.5%), married (55.5%), received Bachelor’s Degree (51.2%), self-employed (29.1%), average monthly income of 15,001–20,000 baht (33.8%), travel from Bangkok and vicinity (35.6%). The behavior of Thai tourists who visited Singburi, mostly never traveled to Singburi, came with family by personal car. The majority did not stay overnight. The expenditures for each visit were between 2,001-3,000 baht. They gained cultural tourism information from Internet. The majority of the respondents were satisfied with the overall marketing factors which included products of tourism, price, places, promotion, personnel, service process, and physical environment at moderate level (= 2.75) which the overall expectation is at high level (= 4.13). The Tourists’ satisfaction and expectation were in Quadrant I in personnel and service process, Quadrant II in promotion or marketing communication, Quadrant III in tourism products, and Quadrant IV in price, places or channel of distribution and physical environment. The improvement approach of enhancing for cultural tourism marketing in Singburi Province revealed that the provincial administrators should promote the public relations to persuade and to convince the tourists; improve the tourist attraction presentation in various approaches; create the tourism officers to narrate the tourist attraction in an interesting manner. Keywords: Tourist Satisfaction, Tourist Expectation, IPA Analysis, Cultural Tourism Marketing, Singburi Province