A Study of Tourist Experience for Developing of Religious Tourism in Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the tourism attributes which are important to the religious tourists; and 2) to study the types of tourism experiences of religious tourists. The sample group used in this study comprised of 400 respondents who have visited religious tourism sites in Rattanakosin Island that were selected using an accidental random sampling method. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire; the statistics used to analyze data were descriptive statistics: frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The study results revealed that the most important tourism attributes towards Thai Religious Tourists were convenience to access tourism sites, traditional and cultural activities creation, scenery of tourism destination and tourists satisfied in tourism attributes in the uniquness of architecture, atmosphere, climate and hospitality, respectively. Tourists gave high importance but received less satisfaction on calmness of sites, convenience of accessibility, scenery, price of products and services. For the tourism experiences received by religious tourists were Aesthetic Experience, Service Experience, Escapist Experience, Educational Experience, Social Experience, respectively.