Tourist Behavior Towards the Interpretation of Agro-Ecotourism in Sam Ruean Community, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Thailand

Abstract

This study has purposes to 1) study personal information, travel behavior and the level of tourists' opinions towards the perception of the interpretation of agro-ecotourism attractions of the Sam Ruean community and 2) compare the level of tourists' opinions on perceptions of interpreting tourist attractions based on personal factors and tourism behavior by using a quantitative research method from 400 Thai tourists traveling in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics consisting of percentage, mean, standard deviation, inferential statistics consisting of t-test, ftest and content analysis method. The results showed that most of the respondents were female aged more than 51 years old. Most of them are merchandisers or has their own-business, have primary school graduation, and earn monthly income less than 10,000 Baht. For the tourist behavior of tourists visiting Sam Ruean Community, the main objective of visiting was to travel/relax. They usually travel with their relatives or families by driving their private cars for 4-5 people. The expenses of each trip were less than 500 Baht. Most of them firstly visited Sam Ruean community and preferred visiting Sam Ruean community due to unique tourism place where they have never been before. The tourists received tourist attractions information from the internet/social media and were interested to join in cooking domestic foods as main dishes and dessert. The thing arousing numerous tourists visiting Sam Ruean Community was natural resource condition (bolete mushroom). The tourists with different individual characteristics including ages, and level of graduation have different perceptions of agroecotourism interpretation of Sam Ruean community presented via the communicating forms of tourism meaning, such as tour guide, exhibition boards, and enjoyment content features. Tourist behavior with different tourism behavior in terms of experience in routes for visiting Sam Ruean community, characteristics of choosing a tourist attraction, a tourist attraction of Sam Ruean community have different perceptions of interpretation of the meaning of a tourist attraction, the interpretation of tourism for demonstrating domestic wisdom, tourism interpretation via website, characteristics of identity content or value of tourist attractions, and easy-to-understand languages.