Attitudes and Participation of Tourists on the Smoke Free Beach Project: a Case Study of Bangsaen Beach, Chon buri Province

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to examine the attitudes and the participation of Thai tourists towards the smoke-free beach project in Bangsaen beach area. In this study, 400 tourists were randomly selected and answered questionnaire, and out of there 400 tourists,  40 smokers on the beach were selected and answered additional parts of questionnaire.    The study period ran from December 28th, 2019 until February 22th, 2020 with the survey days being on weekends. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The findings could be summarized as follows: (1) The tourists used the smoking box for smoking and discarding the cigarette butts at a moderate level, which was consistent with the survey results of 46.19% cigarette butts found along the roadside and the beach pathways, 36.49% was inside the smoking box and 17.32% was on the beach areas. (2) The participation of tourists on the smoke-free beach project overall was at a moderate level, with consciousness overall being at the highest level. Regarding attitude, knowledge, and awareness overall were at a high level, while the aspect of information perception and role model overall were at a moderate level. (3) Hypothesis results indicated that tourists with different sexes and ages had different levels of participation in the project. (4) Of the six factors used for the analysis, it was found that only four factors namely; knowledge, information perception, consciousness and role model which can be best explained the relationship of the tourist's participation in the project by 15.2% with the statistical significance at the level of 0.05