Travel motivations of foreign tourists affecting travel decisions to travel at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

This study aimed to: 1. examine the travel motivation and decision-making of foreign tourists visiting the Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, 2. compare travel decisions based on the tourists’ personal characteristics, and 3. explore how travel motivation influences the decision to visit the Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary. The sample consisted of 385 foreign tourists visiting the sanctuary. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.962 was used. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics: One-Way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that 1. Both travel motivation and decision-making were rated at the highest level of importance (= 4.68). 2. There were statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level in travel decisions among tourists with different genders, ages, ethnicities, educations, occupations, average monthly incomes, frequency of visits, time spent at the attraction, and companions. and 3. Travel motivation had a statistically significant influence on the decision to visit the sanctuary. Among the push factors,  relaxation was the most influential (= 0.719, followed by interpersonal relationships (= 0.319) and closeness to nature (= 0.079). Among the pull factors, novelty ranked highest (= 0.230), followed by value for money (= 0.205) and service quality (= 0.138).