Factors affecting demand for travel to Korea : a case study of Thai tourists to Korea

Nowadays, There is the increasing number of Thai tourists travelling to Korea compare to the past. This study aimed to investigate factors affecting demand for traveling to Korea in order to find out factors affecting Thai tourists’ decision on traveling to Korea and how Korean wave influenced Thai tourists on traveling decision Korea as well. The scope of this study was limit only Thai tourists who traveled to Korea with tour agent. Method of this study distributing using 323 questionnaires at Suvarnabhumi airport as a mean to collect data from the respondents by using a multiple regression to analyze data. Result of the study found that factor affecting demand for travel to Korea is Korean wave relating factors are the most important factor which promotes Thai tourists to revisit Korea. In addition, absorbing Korean culture period also play significant role here. The group of people who had absorbed Korean culture for long time will always support Korea by revisiting. Moreover, those who had absorbed Korean wave by using Korean cosmetic brands and studying Korean language have more tendencies to revisit to Korea. However, Korean drama can promote the good image of Korean tourism. Result of analyzed found that Korean dramas is one of factor that led demand for travel to Korea. While consider from demand for travel to Korea from expenditure found that the rise of expenditure and the fall of expenditure depend on income of tourists. High income tends to spend more money than lower income.