The Analysis Model of Thai Tourists’ Willingness to Pay for the Entrance Fee of Ai Yoeweng Skywalk, Betong District, Yala Province

Abstract

Consumers' willingness to pay is essential in determining the appropriate prices for goods and services. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and traveling behavior and analyzed willingness to pay the fee to visit the Ai Yoeweng Skywalk of Thai tourists by Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). This study was based on data from the questionnaires of 400 samples and the Logit model to analyze the willingness to pay. This study found that bid price, age, religion, occupation, frequency of travelling to Betong, travelling time and receiving travel information via Facebook were independent variables which were statistically significant on willingness to pay. While, the average of the willingness to pay for the fee of the Thai tourists was at 66.80 baht per person per visit. However, the tourist groups of ages at 31- 41 and above 40, the Buddhism tourists and other religions except Islam, and the tourists who did not receive travel information via Facebook had willingness to pay more than the average. In contrast, the tourists who were students or doing business and the tourists who were travelling more than 6 days had willingness to pay less than the average. Thus, the entrance fees should be set based on the willingness to pay of tourists, which will enable Ai Yoeweng Skywalk to generate economic values in the fourth quarter of 2020 by as much as 15,228,730 baht. Furthermore, this study is useful for developing tourism to be in consistent with tourists' behaviors in order to expand the tourism market in the future.