TOURISM IMAGE AND GASTRONOMY TOURISM IN CHIANG MAI PROVINCE

Abstract

             The purpose of this research was to study the image of the local food in Chiang Mai and Thai tourists’ attitudes towards the local food in Chiang Mai province. The purposive sampling was used.  The questionnaire was constructed and was used as a tool to collect the data. The research samples were 400 Thai tourists who had travelled in Chiang Mai province. The statistic used to analyze the data in this research included frequency, percentage, and Independent t test. The research results showed that the Thai tourists had been very satisfied with the image of local food in Chiang Mai. The mean values of all factors were between 4.13-3.62. Regarded from the highest to the lowest, it was found that the first factor was the ambience of the local restaurants, followed by the restaurant novelty, the quality of the local food, the worthiness of money, and the impressions and facilities, respectively. Thai tourists’ attitudes towards the local food in Chiang Mai were overall very satisfying. When considering in each factor, it was found that the first factor was the originality, the second one was the tourist behavior trends, the third one was distinctiveness, and the last one was the aesthetics.