Discipline: Social Science
Since the main goal of tourism is to run a business responding to customer needs, tourist expectations and satisfaction are deemed two main components measuring the quality of tourism. This study compares the expectations and satisfaction of Chinese tourists toward tourism services in Thailand. The subjects of the study are two groups of Chinese tourists categorized by their income. These are labeled throughout this paper as “general” (denoting lower-income Chinese tourists) and “quality” (denoting higher-income Chinese tourists). A survey study methodology was used to collect data using a questionnaire completed by 435 general tourists and 413 quality tourists. Importance–Performance Analysis was applied to examine the expectations and satisfaction of the tourists toward seven attributes of Thailand tourist destinations. The findings reveal that the majority of the general Chinese tourists travel with their tour operators while most of the quality Chinese tourists plan their trips and travel by themselves. The quality tourists usually face difficulties with immigration and access to tourist attractions. However, both tourist groups are satisfied with the beauty of the attractions and their hotels. The study suggests some guidelines which may be useful to the government of Thailand or the tourism business owners to help develop tourism which meets the demands of the target tourist groups.
ISSN 0119-8386 (Print)
Philippine E-Journals
