Tourist Needs and Cultural Tourism in Thailand

This blog post was translated from an academic paper. Please cite the original article.
APA
Arunrangsiwed, P. (2020). Floating Market Studies: A Literature Review. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Phayao, 8(1), 25-42.

Tourist needs

The uniqueness of the floating market is what tourists want. Uniqueness is the opposite of the repeating and boring place or products, which were mentioned in previous topic. Nana Srithammasak และ คณะ (2561) found that foreign tourists come to eat at the floating market because they want to find a new atmosphere. This is similar to the finding of สิรัชญา วงษ์อาทิตย์ และ ยุพาวรรณ วรรณวาณิชย์ (2559) which states that the exotic atmosphere that tourists like is an old atmosphere, which might be the atmosphere that people could experience before this contemporary generation. Therefore, the interesting thing of floating market is the mood and old feeling that is almost impossible to find in everyday life (สิรัชญา วงษ์อาทิตย์ และ ยุพาวรรณ วรรณวาณิชย์, 2559).

With a different atmosphere from daily life and work, especially for those who live in the city Therefore, visiting the floating market is a good way to relax (ชัยยุทธ ถาวรานุรักษ์, 2562). This can be explained by usingthe same phenomenon as when viewers watch movies or when they read novels. People would feel that they had temporarily escape from the real world (Arunrangsiwed, Komolsevin, & Beck, 2017; Jenkins, 1992). These tourists are more likely to come to eat than to buy souvenirs or buy something for their family (ทากะโนริ อิชิกาวะ และ ฉวีวรรณ เด่นไพบูลย์, 2560). Eating or having meals is a part of everyday life. This means it might be a boring activity. To choose a new place to eat with in an exotic location could be a great way to relax. Tourists also need friendly communication, too (สุทธยา สมสุข, สุวภัทร อำพันสุขโข, และ ยาภรณ์ ดำจุติ, 2561), which is politeness and trustworthiness provided by service providers and hawkers (อรรนพ เรืองกัลปวงศ์ และ สราวรรณ์ เรืองกัลปวงศ์, 2559).

Although leisure, sightseeing, and photography may be part of the preservation of the local art and culture of the floating market, these may not generate income as an important factor for the floating market and the local community to sustain. Therefore, there is a marketing research done to study the floating market and these studies could help suggest the way to improve local people’s income.

Tourist Needs and Cultural Tourism in Thailand
It is important to note that I wrote an article for a conference in Phayao, and my article was published in Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Phayao. I translated to manuscript into English during the peer review process or about Mar 2020. I kept the translated version until my article was published in the academic journal. Why did I translate? I think it may increase the number of citations for my paper.