A STUDY OF THAI TOURISM TO JAPAN: COMPARISON OF THE PREFERRED TRAVEL MODE OF GEN Y AND BABY BOOMERS. On the other hand, but now Thai Generation Y preferred to travel to Japan through the FIT method. After July 2013, the Japanese government allowed Thai people to travel to Japan without using a Japanese visa, which creates the feeling of traveling with FIT among Thai people.
The purpose of this study is to find out which dimension(s) have an influence on the increasing tendency of FIT tourists to Japan compared between people in Gen Y and Baby Boomers. Most of the people who travel with group tour are the people in baby boomers because at that time technology is not good. Service from travel agencies is important to baby boomers, but generation Y tends to do a lot of things themselves.
The trend of FIT tourists to Japan in Generation Y is increasing compared to the Baby Boomer generation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Baby Boomers Generation
- Generation Y
- Tourists
- Group Package Tour or All-Inclusive Package Tours
- Free Independent Traveler
- Technology Improved For Both Generations (Baby Boomers, Generation Y)
- Factors Influencing Method of Travelling
Baby boomers labeled themselves as "technology laggards" when compared to Gen X and Y (Elisabeth McLeod, International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society, Vol 7, No. 1, 2009). The first is the Group Package Tour (GPT) or Group Inclusive Tour (GIT), and the Free Independent Traveler (FIT) or Independent Traveler (Mark A. Bonn, Howook. These types of tours are very popular within the group of the senior citizen now who is the citizen in the baby boomer generation because the main reason they buy the tour is convenience.
The free independent travel is quite difficult and demanding for people of the same age as them. The above reasons indicate that participating in an all-inclusive package tour seems to be the better option for the baby boomer generation (Louisa Yee-Sum Lee, Henry Tsai, Nelson K.F. Tsang, Ada S.Y. Lo, Journal of China Tourism Research). From the perspective of baby boomers, joining an all-inclusive package tour offers them great benefits in terms of safety and security, and it is worry-free because everything is well prepared by the travel agency.
Also, because they don't know search engine technology and foreign languages, they easily leave these things to the travel agency to manage. As technology stands today, it is very easy to access general public information via the Internet; this is a big change in the global travel market as it has become easier to get more information for leisure/pleasure travel planning for the Free Independent Traveler (FIT). Everyone has to adapt to technology, which included both baby boomers and Generation Y, who were affected by the changes in technology.
If you look at baby boomers generation (age 46 to 64) in the US, can be considered as 35% of the internet population and they are also considered as the largest generation in the US with the great spending power of more than USD 2 trillion. Comparing baby boomer generation with generation Y considering age 19 to 33, this generation represents 30% of internet population, it shows that generation Y is the major internet user in USA compared to the population size between both generations. Tour escort and local guide can help them to be familiar with the place and feel safe when they have someone to take care of them.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Sample and Data Collection
About the data collection, consumer semi-structured and manager semi-structured interviews will be used to collect data. About the consumer semi-structured will be divided into two groups; baby boomers generation (46 -64 years old) and generation Y (29 years old and below) with the sample size of 8 persons from each group to understand their opinions from the perspective of consumers between these two generations with the way of travel between group package and free independent traveler. Through this method, it will help us explore opinions from consumers' side about the factors that influence the change of travel method as the FIT traveler increases.
For the semi-structured manager, three sample sizes are needed from the manager working in the tourism industry to listen to their views on the change in the travel method trend and their views to prove that the increasing FIT trend can have an impact are on tourism. industry by creating a new market or the blue ocean in this industry. In relation to the interview, open-ended questions will be used to allow the researcher to understand the interviewee using 'wh' and 'how' questions. We would like to give them the freedom to express their opinions freely during the interview.
RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Research Finding
- Demographic Data
- General Information
Data Analysis
- Baby boomers Generation Interviews
- Generation Y Interviews
- Manager Interviews
They believe that they can travel with a lower budget if they travel with a group package rather than the FIT method. Some of them do not think that technological changes will affect them as they travel with group packages anyway. The first factor they choose is the risk of traveling as they mention that at this age they want something that is convenient and comfortable for them so they think about their safety first and then they decide to choose to travel with group package.
Everyone loves to travel and they all used to use both group pack and FIT as their travel method. Only a few prefer group package when they think they don't know the language of the country in question. The reason they traveled with a group package is because they traveled with their family, so their parents (Baby boomers generation) chose it.
Some of them will use group package if they are going to travel with their family and they don't think they can communicate with Japanese people with Japanese language. Group package is more safety than FIT as they provided tour leader and guide to take care of the group. Generation Y would consider using group package when traveling with their family, especially with their parents.
There is a chance that Generation Y who prefer FIT method will prefer Group Package in the future as they grow older and older. At their age, they need someone to take care of them for everything, so group package travel can answer their need. They can be considered 50 / 50 for the FIT and Group package, as some of them can't get long vacations and don't have time to plan, but some can do it since they work as freelancers or work that doesn't involve much the office not stricter.
Group tour package can be divided into two types which are incentive group and collective group. In contrast, people traveling with the group package would consider the risk of travel as their first priority.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Conclusion for Baby boomers Generation Interviews
- Conclusion for Generation Y Interviews
- Conclusion for Manager Interviews
- Recommendation
- Limitation
- Further Research
For the factor that they think is very important for them is the new experience from travel as the main purpose for them to travel is to explore the world, so they want new experience that they cannot get in Thailand. Follow the risk from the trip as they considered that the risk of traveling to Japan is low, so if they don't know the Japanese language, they can still survive the trip. The least worrying factor is the planning process before the trip as they think they need to have other factors first in order to be motivated to plan the trip.
Further with several factors that make it easy to travel to Japan on your own, so the trend of FIT will start more and more from now and in the future. They will worry about their safety first as they are traveling with the group, they will have a tour guide who can provide information and lead them to Japan while not needing to know Japanese language and the direction. After work, it seems that they just want to relax from work, so they don't care much about variety seeking and new experience that they will get from the package.
Then they explained that for FIT travelers, they start thinking about the new experience that they want to have from the trip and then they start their planning process about accommodation, seasons, airlines, restaurants, route, etc. Because the risk of traveling seems that that is the last thing they want to worry about because FIT travelers are the people who are ready to take risks and explore new things. So travel companies have to adapt to the trend to survive in the market.
Regarding travel agencies, it seems that to survive in this business world, they have to adapt to the trend change in this business as it always changes from time to time. To study the trend change and what factor makes the trend change important, technological change is the most influential factor towards FIT trend in Generation Y and second generation. Because they will have more resources to travel and if travel agencies can predict the trend change.
APPENDICIES
The interview questions are related to the research topic “Increasing trend of FIT tourists to Japan compared between people in generation Y and baby boomer generations. What is the mode of travel (group package, FIT) you usually use to Japan? What about your last vacation trip, which travel method (group package, FIT) you use and what are the criteria for your decision.
If you have a chance, would you use the same method of travel or not and why? What about your last trip to Japan, which travel method (Group Package, FIT) you use and what are the criteria for your decision making. If you have a chance, would you use the same method of travel in Japan or not and why.
In your opinion, how technologies influence your generation towards travel method and decision to Japan. Please rank which factor is most important to you in choosing your travel method to Japan: risk of traveling (high/low) (language, direction, people, food, etc.), new experience, pre-trip planning process, variety seeking, etc.
