Wellness Tourism Behavior of Thai Tourists in Chiang Mai

Abstract

Covid-19 has had a significant impact on Thailand's tourism industry since the first quarter of 2020 and its impact has spread to all sectors of Thai industry, including the hotel business. Meanwhile, survey results from a Suan Dusit poll and IPG MEDIABAND have shown that, consistent with an increase in health and wellness trends, people focused more attention on their personal health in 2020. From this, an opportunity has arisen to study the impact of health tourism activities to compensate for the loss of income to hotels affected by the Covid-19 virus crisis.

This thesis aims to study of the needs of health tourists who are interested in traveling to Chiang Mai to understand the relationship between health tourism behaviors of tourists in Chiang Mai and suggest adjustments for hotels to accommodate health tourists. A questionnaire was the main research instrument used, and using the Taro Yamane population formula, the confidence level was 95%. 400 questionnaires were obtained. The data from the questionnaires were used to determine the correlation and the statistical implications for data analysis.

The research concludes that travelers aged 20-39 are more likely to be interested in adventurous activities outside of hotels such as nature trekking and cycling. This group of tourists will return and engage in activities such as acupressure, massage, Aromatherapy, Khantoek, eating local cuisine, listening to local music performances, watching Lanna dance performances, and cooking local food in the hotel. The study’s recommendations for promoting health tourism in Chiang Mai include establishing government and private agency networks in Chiang Mai to create a health service program focused on raising the quality of tourism, as well as offering new health service products to future tourists. If operators can adjust the hotel area to accommodate healthy activities or services, they will be able to attract target customers to stay at the hotel.