Factors Determine the Sustainable Cultural Heritage of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan, Nakhon Phanom Province

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to study the opinions of tourists about cultural heritage sustainability and to study the factors that determine the sustainability of the cultural heritage of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan. The questionnaires were used as a tool to collect data from Thai tourists in the area of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan, amounting
to 400 samples by convenient random sampling. After that, the data were analyzed by finding the frequency, percentage, mean. The estimation was employed by the Structure Equation Modeling method to find first-order and second-order derivatives by exploration factor analysis and confirmatory component analysis. The study found that the importance of the factors determining the sustainability of cultural heritage that the respondents gave the highest priority was conservation and revitalization of local culture within the temple. As for the factors that determine the sustainability of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan, which are measured from 4 factors. The first factor is economic and social activities, the 2nd factor in tourism management, the 3rd factor in the culture of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan and the 4th factor is the surrounding environment. The study results also found that the model was consistent with the empirical data from Chi-square = 212.412, Degree of Freedom = 182, Chi-square /df = 1.167, p = 0.06, RMSEA = 0.02, CFI = 0.995, TLI = 0.993, SRMR = 0.026 The tourism management factor is the factor that most influences the sustainability of Wat Phra That Phanom Woramahawihan.