A STUDY OF THE KEY FACTORS ON FOREIGN TOURISTS’ SATISFACTION AT THE TALING CHAN FLOATING MARKET IN BANGKOK Mr. LANH DANH ID: 5917192013 SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, SIAM UNIVERSITY, BANGKOK, THAILAND 2018 A Abstract In Bangkok, Taling Chan floating market is one of the main tourist destinations for not only Thai local people but also around the world. And tourism has become one of the main industries generating billions of dollars with double digit contribution in the total GDP of the many countries including Thailand. Understanding what drives satisfaction for a tourist is one of the most relevant areas of research for the tourism industry as satisfied tourists tend to transmit their positive experience to others and to repeat their visit. The literature reveals that the level of tourist satisfaction with a particular trip is the result of different factors which are generally assessed as a comparison between the tourist's perception of the products and services he receives and the expectations generated before and during his trip. As a result of such interest, numerous studies have been carried out to measure the degree of tourist satisfaction, but very few papers have focused on analyzing the antecedents behind this variable and the possible relationships between them. In a highly competitive market, being able to offer an attractive tourist destination implies having a deep understanding of the motives that lead a tourist to choose one particular destination among all the alternatives; the activities available to the tourist at the destination, and the degree of satisfaction with the product he receives. In this sense, the causal relationship between motivation, activities performed at destination, and tourist satisfaction have only been superficially discussed both conceptually and empirically. This study, examined the key factors of tourist satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok. The relationship between the key factors of natural factors, cultural factors and shopping activities and foreign tourist satisfaction is affected to Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok. The international B visitors in this study expressed high degrees of satisfaction with Taling Chan floating market. the correlations of “Natural factors” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok and “Cultural Factors” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at TalingChan floating market in Bangkok and “Shopping activities” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok descriptive statistic of foreign tourists satisfaction to analyze of average Mean and Standard Deviation describes. The Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that foreign tourists who visited at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok concerning with their opinion to “Natural factors” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok (r = 1, p <.000), “Cultural Factors” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok (r =.050 p <.000), “Shopping activities” that foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok (r = .030, p <.000), were positively relationship with froeign tourists’ satisfaction statistical significance level of 0.01. It means the key factors of Natural, cultural and shopping activities are relationship with tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok according to SPSS calculation in this research. Taling Chan floating market gives a glimpse of Thai way of life of local community who live along these canals. One can see people use canal water for their daily use, growing plants and vegetation and using boats to sell local products. Alongside these canals, locals set up a market on weekends to sell recent products and earn their livelihood. In the study, they concluded that floating markets reflect farmers’ way of life, their social interactions and various products and services they can offer in the markets. D ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to thank my committee members for the guidance and encouragement. And I would like to gave a special thanks to Dr. Chen advisor and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jompong Mongkhonvanit Acting Dean, Graduate School of Business Administation Siam University, Bangkok, Thailand for them thoughtful and caring supervision by menas of his educational excellence. I am most grateful to them especially for them deep understanding of the Independent Study and his good commumication skills. Secondly, I am sincerely grateful and appreciative to all the lecturers of IMBA. All of them have been very helpful in understanding international business. In particular I would like to thank Mr. Master Key for his tremendous assistance, kindness and encouragement for studying of the key factors on foreign tourists’ satisfaction at Taling Chan floating market in Bangkok. A special thanks also to the administrative officers for their cooperation and library staff for their help in finding books. Finally, I would also like to take the opportunity to express my deepest gratefulness to my parents, my Master Venerable. Danh Lung, Venerable. Danh Minh and Venerable Danh Le who have allowed me and supported me to study in Thailand I am grateful to all my relatives and friends who always make my life interesting. They came and encouraged me to go through hard times. Without the participation of all respondents, this study was completed, so specially thank them all for their time and valuable comments and I also want to express my gratitude for sharing their pearls of wisdom with me during this research. Mr. LANH DANH Bangkok, 4 May 2018 E CONTENTS Pages Abstract ……………………….... …………………. A Acknowledgement ………………………… ………………… D Table Contents ………………………….………………… E List of Tables ………………………….………………… G List of Figures …………………………………………… G CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study ……………………………………………. 1 1.2 Statement of the problem …………………………………………… 3 1.3 Research Question …………………………………………… 4 1.4 Objective of the Study …………………………………………… 4 1.5 Hypothesis of the Study …………………………………………… 5 1.6 Variables of Study …………………………………………… 6 1.7 Significant of the Study …………………………………………… 6 1.8 Limitation of the Study ………………………….………………… 7 1.9 Definitions ………………………….………………… 8 CHAPTER 2 Literature Review 2.1 Review of Taling Chan floating market ………………….………………… 10 2.2 Significance of Tourist Satisfaction ……….…………………………… 14 2.3 The Significance of Studying Tourist Behavior …………….……………… 14 2.4 The Product of Tourism …………………….……………………. 16 2.5 Measuring Tourist Satisfaction ……………………….……………... 17 2.6 Related Research of Taling Chan ……………………………………… 18 F CHAPTER-3 Methodology 3.1 Data Collection ……………………………………………. 21 3.2 Sampling Technique ………….………………………………… 23 3.3 Population and Sample ……………………………………………. 24 3.4 Sample Size ……………………………………………. 24 3.5 Data Analysis ……………….…………………………... 25 3.6 Method of Inquiry ……...………………………………….…. 26 3.7 Sampling Population …………………………………………… 27 3.8 Sample Size of population …………………………………………… 28 3.9 Coding Structure ………………………………………….... 28 3.10 Primary and Secondary Data …………………………………………… 30 CHAPTER 4 Finding results 4.1 Research findings and analysis……………………………………………... 32 4.2 Descriptive Analysis ……………………………………………... 33 4.3 Data analysis ………..……………………………………. 43 CHAPTER-5 Conclusion and Recommendation 5.1 Conclusion ……………………………………………... 49 5.2 Recommendation ……………………………………………... 51 5.3 Limitation of the Study ……………………………………………... 55 References ……………………………………………. 56 Appendix ……………………………………………. 59 Biography …………………………………………….. 63 G LIST OF TALBLES Table Table: 1 Descriptive Statistics of Demographic ………………………….. 33 Table 2: Frequency table of the gender respondents …………………………. 34 Table 3: Frequency table of age respondents …………………………. 34 Table 4: Frequency table of marital status respondents …………………………. 35 Table 5: Frequency table of occupation respondents …………………………. 35 Table 6: Frequency table of monthly income respondents …………………………. 36 Table 7: Frequency table of education level respondents …………………………. 37 Table: 8 Frequency table of type of travelling’s respondents…………………………. 37 Table: 9 Frequency table of purpose of travel’s respondents …………………………. 38 Table: 10 Frequency table of arriving time’s respondents …….…………………… 39 Table: 11 Frequency table of attractive activities …………………………. 39 Table: 12 Frequency table of challenging problems’ respondents……………………. 40 Table: 13 Frequency table of attractive of Taling Chan floating market……………………. 41 Table: 14 Frequency table of Natural activities at Taling Chan floating market…………… 41 Table: 15 Frequency table of Cultural Factors of Taling Chan floating market…………… 42 Table: 16 Frequency table of shopping activities’ of Taling Chan floating market 43 Table 17: Descriptive statistics of Mean and Std. Deviation ………………… 44 Table: 18 One-Sample statistics and Test of tourists’ satisfaction ………………… 46 Table 19 Group statistics and Independent Sample Test ………………… 47 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Figure 1: Conceptual Framework ……………………………………................. 5 Figure: 2 Question Framework …..…………………………………………… 27 1 CHAPTER-1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the study In Bangkok, Taling Chan floating market is one of the main tourist destinations for not only Thai local people but also around the world. And tourism has become one of the main industries generating billions of dollars with double digit contribution in the total GDP