The Image and Attitude of Foreign Tourists Towards Food Tourism that Influences Repeat Visits to Thailand

Abstract

The image and attitude of foreign tourists towards food tourism are thought to be significant for provincial and national tourism planning. However, little research has been done on foreign visitor groups, which could result in fewer opportunities to promote food tourism. Therefore, this research aims to 1)  investigate how foregn visitors  perceive and feel about food tourism and 2) assess  the factors  that influence the image perception and attitude of foreign tourists to repeat visits for food tourism. This research was a quantitative study using a questionnaire as a tool to collect information from 400 foreign tourists who  had visited Thailand and either consumed Thai food or  had  a chance to participate in Thai food-related activities. The results of the research found that local people had a favorable overall image perception of food tourism  at a high level. In terms of attitude of Thai food tourism,  the most popular factor was tasting local food, which scored the highest.  The respondents also expressed their desire  to repeat visits Thailand to participate in food tourism.  Nevertheless, the image and attitude of the respondents also affected the repeat visiting intention to Thailand  at  statistically significant level of  .05.