FACTORS AFFECTING THE FOREIGN SENIOR CITIZENS’ DECISION TO SPEND THEIR RETIREMENT IN CHIANG MAI PROVINCE

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to study the opinions regarding the decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province of the foreign senior citizens, (2) to study the factors affecting the decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province of the foreign senior citizens, and (3) to study the problems encountered by the foreign senior citizens during their sojourn in Chiang Mai and suggestions on solving the problems. The research sample consisted of 337 foreigners, aged 60 years old and above who held the retirement visa to stay in Chiang Mai province. The research instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. Statistics for data analysis were the multiple correlation, and multiple regression analysis.
The research findings were the following: (1) The decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province of the foreign senior citizens was at the high level. (2) The factors affecting the decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province of the foreign senior citizens could be ranked based on their rating means as follows: the economic factor, the social and cultural factor, the environmental factor, and the political factor. However, there were only 3 factors namely, economic factor, social and cultural factor, and environmental factor which were significantly correlated with the decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province. The stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the economic factor was the best predictor for the decision to spend their retirement in Chiang Mai province of the foreign senior citizens, especially the cheap cost of living and their affordable income, to be followed by the social and cultural factor and the environmental factor, respectively. (3) The prominent problems encountered by the foreign senior citizens during their sojourn in Chiang Mai were: the inconvenience of reporting their addresses every 90 days, the compulsory regulation to apply for visa extension every year, the problems of pollutions, traffic, the communication problems with Thai people, the problems concerning their understanding of the Thai culture, and the problems of collecting bribes from the foreigners by the government officials. Their main suggestions were that the report should only be required when they change the address, and extension of visa should be changed from 1 year to 3 or 5 years.