Tourist Perceptions to Cultural Identity: The Case of Thai Experience

Tourism is seen as one of the main drivers of socio-economic progress in both developed and developing regions. Many developing countries perceive tourism as a fast track to economic growth. Thailand tourism's industry contributes significantly to the Thai economy, which receives around 7% of its GDP from international tourism revenue. Thailand is often viewed as a wondrous kingdom, featuring temples, wildlife and tropical islands. Visitors are also attracted by its history, culture, modern capital city and reputation as the “land of smiles”. Entrepreneurs in Thailand try to capitalize on these characteristics to create products or services to serve tourists. However, good design and good quality are not enough to survive in a competitive market. The make up of customers is constantly evolving and they are becoming more discerning and demanding. Thus, it is important to work closely with customers to make sure that products and services fulfill their needs and requirements, and to understand customers through study of their behaviors and preferences. This study explored customer perceptions of Thai cultural identity, and employed an emotional design approach to find out how products may fulfill customer perceptions and requirements. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire then statistically analyzed using the principal component analysis (PCA) approach. Results illustrate the relationship between customer perception and Thai cultural identity, and can be used to guide entrepreneur decision making to create new products or services following the Thai cultural identity and meeting of perceptions of customers.