Abstract

This research had two aims, (1) to determine information sources influencing inbound tourist’s perception on the ideal image of Thailand (images of Thailand before visiting) and (2) to compare between ideal and perceived images (images of Thailand after travelling). Data was gathered from 400 inbound tourists who had experiences in travelling in Thailand. Selection of respondents of inbound tourists, by accidental sampling at Suvannabhum Airport 250 respondents and at Don Muang Airport 150 respondents. The research tools used in the study were structured questionnaires. The statistics for test the hypothesis “The ideal and perceived image of Thailand is significantly different” is a t-test. The study findings are as follows 1. The majority of respondents were mostly female, single and aged under 30 years old. Most respondents had Bachelor Degree in Education, were professional employees and earned income less than 20,000 US$ per year. The dominant characteristics are western (England, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Australia, respectively), spending from 10 to 20 days in Thailand, travelling alone, and their visit was mainly influenced by the nature and climate. Furthermore, most of them claimed the significant sources of Thailand information were their friends and social media, respectively. The social media they accessed regarding Thailand information, they mainly mentioned websites i.e., www.lonelyplanet.com and www. tripadvisor.com, respectively.Travel public relations agencies most used personal media or word of mouth, followed by social media especially the website www. lonelyplanet.com and www.tripadvisor.com.(2) Most respondents positively perceived ideal images of Thailand and reported positive perceived images of Thailand with very good level in all aspects. Significantly, the various kinds of food was given the highest score of both ideal and perceived images of Thailand. (3) The comparison between ideal images and perceived images of Thailand reveals that after travelling the scores given to an aspect of various kinds of food decreased, while the highest scores were given to an aspect of natural resources and environment. (4)The hypothesis test showed the difference in ten aspects between ideal images and perceived images of Thailand including aspects of natural resources and environment, safety of places, various kinds of food, excellence of hotels, worthiness of shopping, reasonability of service prices, information for travel, residential information, discounts for travel, and information publication for tourists by agencies and/or government organizations.

Keywords: Ideal images of thailand, Perceived images of thailand, Inbound tourist’s perception