The Development of Models of Religious Tourism and Meditation Retreat on the Pilgrim Routes in the Secondary Cities in the Upper Northern Thailand Based on Buddhist Medicine to Promote Wellbeing of Seniors Living Alone and Help Them Cope With Depression

Abstract

The research objectives were 1) to study behavior and needs of the elderly in tourism, 2) to develop a model of religious tourism and insight meditation on the pilgrimage route by integrating with Buddhist Dharma therapy in the research and development approach Research areas include a number of 10 temples in the tourism area of secondary cities. A sample of 700 elderly tourists and 25 academic dignitaries Purposive Sampling is used with questionnaires, interviews, and group discussions.

The research results presented that 1) tourism behaviors of the elderly, most of whom visit Buddhist tourist attractions every year. It takes between 3-5 days to travel with the intention of coming to the temple to make merit and pay respect to monks, worship the sacred, relax and practice dharma. The overall needs of the elderly were averaged at the highest level when considering by aspect, respectively. From the target group considered the aspect with the highest average to the lowest as follows: the aspect of dharma practice, then the aspect of facilities and accommodation, access and security, personnel and service, activities and public relations and tourist attractions and attractions, respectively. 2) The development of religious tourism and introspection, It has a pattern called “MFCAP Model” with sub-components: (1) M = Material (material) (2) F = Faith (faith) (3) C = Custom and Culture (tradition and culture). (4) A= Activities and Meditation and (5) P= Pilgrimage (pilgrimage). 3) Assessing the knowledge of the target group from the training, it was found that the target group had a mid-level pre-test training score and after training at a high level. From the comparison of the training results, the mean scores before and after the training was significantly different at the .05 level. The satisfaction of the target group towards religious tourism and meditation was at the highest level.