The Design of Travel Routes for Tourists who Want to Reduce Their Social Media Usage in Khon Kaen District, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

             The objectives of this research are to study tourist behavior in terms of using social media in their daily life, explore and analyze their interest in traveling, and design travel routes to help reduce tourists’ social media usage in Mueang Khon Kaen District, Khon Kaen Province. A quantitative research approach was adopted in this study. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 tourists visiting Khon Kaen Province. These tourists were selected through random sampling technique. Data were analyzed by using narrative method. In addition, descriptive analysis including percentage, means, and standard deviation was also used.
               The findings of this research revealed that most of the respondents viewed that social media was necessary for their daily life and they used social media for more than 10 hours a day for entertainment such as watching movies and listening to music. Moreover, the respondents were found to spend more time on social media than on other activities. Sleep deprivation behavior was also found as a result of social media usage. The respondents were very interested in traveling. The most interesting activity for the respondents was watching movies if they traveled without social media. The most interesting place for them to travel without social media was the movie theaters and shopping malls. These results were used to design three travel routs for the tourists based on their interest in tourism activities.