MODELS OF CBT ATTRACTIVENESS, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, VALUE AND TOURIST EXPERIENCE TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY PREFERENCES
AIM: This research is to investigate the CBT Attractiveness, Local Community Involvement, Value and Tourist Experience towards CBT Sustainability Preference Behaviors in Thailand and to discover how the tourists’ experiences can be optimized. Materials and Methods: A quantitative approach through surveys with questionnaires was applied for information gathering. The sampling method used is Quota sampling in 4 most popular CBT tourism sites in Chiang Mai (100 samples per each site and 50 Thai tourists and 50 foreign tourists per each site). The samples were divided into two groups: 200 domestic tourists and 200 foreign tourists, totaling 400 samples visiting the CBT destinations. A descriptive data analysis was used to describe the characteristics and the behaviors of Thai and foreign CBT tourists in Thailand and a structural equation modeling technique was used to identify the influences of CBT Attractiveness, Local Community Involvement, Value and Tourist Experience on Sustainability Preference through the overall model and the comparison models between Thai and foreign tourists. Results and discussions: The results have presented an overall model and the comparison models of CBT attractiveness, Community Involvement, Values, Tourist Experiences that influence Sustainability Preferences between Thai and foreign tourists. Conclusions: These models can be beneficial for CBT destination management to have better understanding in CBT destination attractiveness in the rural regions of Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand and to respond to Thai and foreign tourists’ demands through their perceptions in CBT attractiveness, Community Involvement, Values, Tourist Experiences and Sustainability Preferences.
CBT Attractiveness, Community Involvement, Value, Tourist Experience, Sustainability Preferences.