A STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TRAVEL DECISION OF SENIOR TOURISTS FOR OUTSIDE TOURISM. This paper attempts to study the main factors influencing the travel decision of elderly Thai tourists for overseas travel. This study found that there are several key factors that influence Thai senior tourists to travel on their own (as independent independent travelers or FITs) or travel with travel agencies (as package travelers).
The research topic of this thematic paper is to examine the motivations and limiting factors affecting Thai senior travelers in outbound tourism. In addition to spending in the healthcare industry, Thai senior citizens also spend heavily in the tourism industry as leisure or relaxation after years of hard work. So, in this study, the research will focus on the Thai elderly, because they tend to be the main group of citizens in Thailand, they also have time to travel and have the opportunity to spend.
Although the trend of Free Independent Travel (FIT) is increasing, I still believe that travel agencies are also necessary as most Thai people, especially seniors, prefer the familiarity and convenience of travel agencies. We can learn more about the needs of Thai senior tourists to provide them with the services that meet their needs. This study also aims to know the pain points of older tourists when traveling abroad, in order to tailor suitable offers that attract this group of people.
This research project improves the tourism industry as it improves the capabilities and competitive advantage of the travel service companies.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition
- Thai Seniors
- Tourism Motivation
- Senior tourism
- Free Independent Travelers (FIT)
- Package Travelers
According to Heung, Qu, and Chu (2001), internal reasons refer to sociodemographics (age, income, and image), values, and motives of travelers, while external reasons mean information sources including media, word of mouth, and travelers. ' experience. There are the relationships between the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, satisfaction and positive experiences related to the tourism industry. The senior market is not homogeneous and Cleaver et al. 1999) classified senior tourists into seven segments, labeled according to motivation: nostalgics, friendlies, learners, escapists, thinkers, status seekers and physicists.
Travelers are divided into two groups in the travel industry based on their style of travel, namely free independent travelers and package travelers. According to Morrison, Hsieh and O'Leary (1993), independent travelers are those who plan their own trip, arrange their own transport and accommodation and do not buy packages or tours offered by others. Independent travelers have more flexibility in their itinerary, choosing their activities, places to visit, duration and place of stay according to their preferences and budget.
According to World Tourism Organization (1993), the homogeneous group package tour has become outdated, it is not in line with the individual expression trend. According to Porter's Five Forces Framework which is a tool to analyze competition of the business, there are many challenges for travel agents to survive in the long term if they do not transform according to the consumer behavior.
Travel Decision Framework
When traveling to unfamiliar destinations, package travelers may have high uncertainty avoidance, lower costs, and spend less time gathering information and arranging a trip (Sheldon et al., 1987). While inclusive tours also offer some activities or entertainment at the destination and some sightseeing. The suppliers also have higher power and they can reach consumers directly without having travel agents.
Suppliers can offer lower prices and promotions directly to consumers if they can reduce travel agent commissions. Customer power is also high because they can easily access information around the world and contact suppliers directly. The example of pull factors are influencers that include close relationships such as family, friends or other people such as celebrities, bloggers or word of mouth (WOM) channels from other travelers.
Marketing activities by the travel agency or the media are also considered pull factors. On the intrinsic motivation side, the driving factors are each person's experience, wants or needs, risk assessment, and confidence level. Another component of the travel decision is the constraint that includes many aspects such as budget, time, access or knowledge of information and companions.
Both motivation and constraints lead to travel decisions for Free Independent Travelers (FIT) or Package Travellers. The hypothesis is that senior tourists tend to choose the type of travel that can cope with their limitations.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Data Collection Methodology
- Population and Sample
- Survey Questionnaire
- Budget
- Information/Knowledge
- Companions
- External Motivation
- Data Analysis
Once the survey questionnaire is finalized, then it is the phase of distribution through social media. The planning for the collection of results is 1 month after the launch of the questionnaire, or when we reach the target number of respondents. After two stages, the process of data analysis will then be done to interpret the data collected from primary and secondary sources.
The target sample size for this study is at least 100 Thai senior tourists aged 55 years and older who used to travel to other countries. The survey questionnaire was administered by Google Forms and distributed online through social media such as Facebook, Line, Whatsapp and Instagram. The survey questionnaire was developed in both English and Thai for quantitative data collection, as I would like to collect a large sample for the behavior of older tourists.
Senior tourists were asked to give their opinion on a four-point Likert scale (1-strongly disagree to 4-strongly agree). Since the quantitative methodology like survey questionnaire has limitations of questions and format, so the third part can be an opportunity to study more if the respondents share their opinion. The hypothesis is that older tourists tend to choose the type of travel that can accommodate their limitations and support their motivations.
I tend to buy travel packages for places visited for the first time, as it is difficult to find information about local transport, attractions and accommodation. It is easy to find travel information on the internet so I can plan the trip myself. Package tours don't offer enough time to fully explore a new destination, so I prefer to organize the trip myself.
The first group is the senior tourists who used to only travel abroad alone, this group is considered Free Independent Travelers (FIT). The second group is the senior tourists who used to travel abroad with a travel agency who will be considered Package Travellers. The analysis will be based on 6 factors as mentioned above to test the hypothesis that senior tourists tend to choose the type of travel that can handle their limitations and is suitable for their motivations.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
- Respondents Characteristics
- Summated Scales
- Multiple Comparisons
- Correlation
- Short answers
For the marital status of the respondents from Table 4.3, the majority of respondents (66%) are 'Married with children'. For the education of the respondents from Table 4.4, the majority of the respondents (53.92%) have 'Bachelor's degree'. For the Information/Knowledge factor the highest mean is at 3.02, the respondents agreed that they tend to buy travel packages for places visited for the first time as it is difficult to find information about local transport, attractions and accommodation to find
For the Companion factor, the highest average value is 3.16, respondents prefer to travel with an agency if they have to travel alone. For the external factor, the highest mean value is 3.12, respondents agree that online reviews are important when planning a trip. In the internal motivation factor, the highest mean is 3.05, the respondents agree that it is risky to organize a trip without the help of a professional agency.
According to Table 4.7, the factor with the highest mean values (2.84) is extrinsic motivation and time. Analyzing from the Bonferroni in Table 4.8, respondents who are single have more intentions to spend a lot of time on travel planning compared to respondents who are married. There are significant differences on average among the respondents in relation to three dependent variables.
Analyzing from Table 4.9 for the first variable under Time factor, respondents who are retired think that using travel agent saves time compared to respondents who are employee/full time or entrepreneur/business owner. From Table 4.10, there is a significant difference in the choice of travel package based on the promotion which is under Budget factor on the number of times respondents traveled abroad. The respondents who have traveled abroad 1-5 times are more likely to choose the package based on the promotion compared to respondents who have traveled abroad more than 10 times.
According to the results in Table 4.11, there are significant differences for eight dependent variables under 4 factors which are time, information/knowledge, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. The result in Table 4.12 shows the pairs of correlation coefficients between the six factors with a total of twelve possible correlations. From the linear regression results in Table 4.13, the F-test characteristic of the model is 0.032, which means that there is a significant relationship between the six independent factors with respect to the dependent variable, which is the decision to choose a travel agency or travel package.
According to Table 4.13, there are two factors that best explain the decision to use a travel agent or purchase a travel package, namely Budget and Companions. For the Budget factor, respondents select the travel agency if the price fits their budget.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
Research Limitations
Recommendations
- Business Recommendations
- Future Research Recommendations
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Questionnaire survey used for collecting data in the quantitative research
Questionnaire for Senior tourism
General Information (Please select one answer)
Attitude towards the statement (Please select one)
Attitude towards the statement (Please select one) (cont.)
Please give short suggestions
