The Effect of Destinations Sustainability, Motivation and Attitude on Tourism Behavior at Monasteries in Ayutthaya District

Abstract

          The research on “The Effect of Destinations Sustainability, Motivation and Attitude on Tourism Behaviors at Monasteries in Ayutthaya District”, was aimed to (1) compare tourism behaviors at monasteries in Ayutthaya District, categorized by individual characteristics, (2) study the effect of the sustainability of tourism destinations, tourism motivation, and attitudes on tourism satisfaction and loyalty towards monasteries. This research methodology was quantitative research; the sample of this research included 400 Thai tourists. The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection with a reliability coefficient of .952. The statistics used for analyzing data comprised percentage, average, standard deviation, t-test, F-test, pairwise comparison by Least Significant Difference (LSD), regression analysis.

         The research result revealed that Thai Tourists’ overall attitudes towards the sustainability of tourism destinations of all 4 monasteries; Wat Phanan Choeng Woravihanra, Wat Yaichaimongkol, Wat Na Phra Meru Rachitarama, and Wat Tha Ga Rong were found to be in the high level. Thai Tourists had overall tourism motivation and attitude towards tourism at monasteries in Ayutthaya Districts in the highest and moderate level, respectively. Thai tourists had the tourism behavior at monasteries in Ayutthaya Districts as follows: (1) the average donation expense was 1,090 baht (2) the average shopping expense was 1,016 baht. (3) the average traveling time was 6 hours (4) the average number of the religious journey in Ayutthaya province in 1 year was 3 times and (5) most of the Thai tourists traveled one-day trip by their own car. Thai tourists with different occupation had different shopping expense and Thai tourists with different education level and monthly salary had different donation and shopping expenses. The sustainability of tourism destination including the environmental/physical aspect and economy aspect, tourism attitude, and tourism motivation were found to affect tourism satisfaction towards all 4 monasteries. Tourism motivation and attitude were found to affect tourism loyalty towards all 4 monasteries. Meanwhile, the environmental/physical aspect of the sustainability of tourism destination was found to affect tourism loyalty towards Wat Phanan Choeng Woravihanra, Wat Yaichaimongkol, and Wat Tha Ga Rong. By the way, the economic aspect of the sustainability of tourism destination was found to affect tourism loyalty towards Wat Yaichaimongkol, Wat Na Phra Meru Rachitarama, and Wat Tha Ga Rong.