Foreign Tourists' Behaviour and Motivation for Visitting Thai temples in Bangkok: A Case Study of Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan, Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan, and Wat Traimit Withayaram Worawihan

Abstract

This research project aims to study the foreign tourist’s behaviors and motivations for visiting royal class Thai temples in Bangkok: A case study of Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangkalaram, Wat Arun Ratchawaramahawihan, and Wat Traimit Witthayaram by using the questionnaire to collect the data collated from 150 samples. Questions types are both close-ended to measure the level of tourists' opinion on motivations (5 Likert scales) and open-ended to extract the respondents’ suggestion. Statistics used in data analysis are descriptive statistics, i.e., frequency (N.), percentage (%), mean (𝑥̅ ) and standard deviation (S.D.). The study results showed that most of the tourists were female, aged between 21-30 years old, holding the bachelor's degree, Christianity, traveled with the group tour, visit each temple for 1-2 hours, travel around Thailand about 5 days, accompanied with their families, and knew the tourist attractions from the internet. The foreign tourist’s motivation for visiting these royal Thai temples in Bangkok were the accessibility, beauty and fame of these temples, namely the uniqueness, architecture, importance to Thai people and society, interesting history and variety of activities to experience, for rest and peace of mind, seeing new things and learning history and culture. The results of the study were expected to be the guideline and improve the quality and services of destinations for the foreign tourist visit.