ENHANCING THE REVISIT INTENTION FOR VOLUNTEERTOURIST IN UPPER NORTHERN THAILAND

1. ENHANCING THE REVISIT INTENTION FOR VOLUNTEERTOURIST IN UPPER NORTHERN THAILAND By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Weerapon Thongma ABSTRACT The main purpose of this research project was to describe the volunteer tourism situation in Thailand. And explore the effects of activity involvement, experiential m….ting, experiential value, and place attachment on the volunteer tourists’ revisit intention. The population was focused on the volunteer tourists who came to visit tourism destination and joint with the volunteer tourism project in Northern Thailand, especiallyin Chaing Mai, Lamphun, Lampang and Chaing Rai provinces. The tallely ISO samples mere dirdech in to 3 subgroups from government deportment, non-profit organization and tourism business organization. Questionnaires were distributed and collected by research interviewers who are 12 exchange students from Taiwan University of Technology (TUT), Taiwan during the 1st July until the 18th August, 2012. The results of research shown volunteer tourism is a relatively new term that has become used mane frequently since the 2004 Tsunami that destroyed communities and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods and triggered and unprecedented out pouring of compassion to southeast Asia especially in Thailand. Furthermore, the results show that all of 5 factors have had positive effete to each others. Therefore, the activity involvement has positive effect to experiential vale, experiential marketing and place attachment. The experiential marketing has positive effect to experiential value and place attachment. The experiential value has positive effect to revisit intension. The experiential mareting has positive effect to revisit intension. Finally, the place attachment has positive effect to revisit intension too. Keywords: Volunteer tourism, Volunteer tourism, Volunteer tourist. The islands and beaches of Thailand are relaxing and a break from colder climates. Our Southern Thailand volunteering base in SuratThani allows volunteers to experience every Thai city, while being only a few hours away from world-class be aches and marine sanctuaries. Volunteering in Thailand opens doors that are closed to regular tourists. By joining the volunteer Thailand ranks wit h Friends for Asia, you may find yourself taking lunch with a Buddhist monk in a Chiang Mai temple or bathing an elephant in a rustic river. Wherever your project takes you, you’ll be meeting needs and making connections through your volunteer experience. Our volunteers here in Thailand are involved in a dynamic range of volunteer projects, from building homes for single mothers in crisis to working with children afflicted wit h HIV. In between are volunteer projects in orphanages, at private hospitals and o n elephant camps. In every case, Friends for Asia Thailand Volunteers are going beyond the routine holiday and traveling with a difference. Research Problem In the researches on the volunteer behavior, “Intention of Continuous Service” that means when people start to be the volunteer they willing to involve in the same mission or work, and service in organization steady, that can help to reduce the training costs, and enhance the service quality. Moreover, the tourists’ “Revisit Intention” for a tourist destination is one of the important indexes for the tourist industry operation and management, which can help to comprehend the consumers’ requirements, improve the satisfactions, and create more benefits. (Roger D. Blackwell, Paul W. Miniard, James F. Engel, 2001). According to this If the Voluntourism want to be developed and progressed continually, how to enhance the Volunteer tourists’ “Revisit Intention” will become a very important challenge that is what the research problem in this study. The Effects of 4 factors that affecting to volunteer tourist revisit intention. This research will adopt the AMOS to analysis the data with Structural equation models (SEMs). Structural equation models (SEMs) report findings in three different ways. Understanding the way statistical significance is reported requires understanding the terminology of the model itself. Within the graphical display of the model there are boxes and arrows. Besides regression coefficients and correlations, SEMs also test the overall fit of the model. The narrative analyses use three measures of model fit to determine the overall quality of fit of the model. Another way of thinking about model fit is to view this as the test of model significance, thus, when the values of significance are met for the tests all relationships within the model are significant, and it is then their relative strengths which decides if there is a relationship or not. The first measure of model fit is the Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI). The GFI measures the relative amount of variance and covariance in the Sample covariance matrix that is jointly explained by the Population covariance matrix. The GFI values range from 0 - 1, with values close to 1 being indicative of good fit. A second type of Goodness-of-Fit index used in the analysis can be classified as incremental or comparative indexes of fit. As with the GFI, incremental indexes of fit are based on a comparison of the hypothesized model against some standard. However, whereas this standard represents no model at all for the GFI, for the incremental indices, it represents a baseline model (typically the independence or null model). Comparative Fit Index (CFI) is useful in that it takes sample size into account. The CFI values range from 0 to 1, but whereas .90 was considered a good fit for GFI, 0.7 is the acceptable model; a revised cutoff of .95 has recently been advised for CFI. The final set of fit statistics used in the analysis focuses on the Root Mean Square of Error Approximation (RMSEA). This fit statistic has only recently been recognized as one of the most informative criteria for use in covariance structure modeling. The RMSEA takes into account the error of approximation in the population and asks the question "How well would the model, with unknown but optimally chosen parameter values, fit the population covariance matrix if it were available?" This discrepancy, as measured by the RMSEA, is expressed per degree of freedom, thus making the index sensitive to the number of estimated parameters in the model (i.e. the complexity of the model); values less than .05 indicate good fit, values between .08 and .1 indicate mediocre fit, and those greater than .1 indicate poor fit. It is also possible to use confidence intervals to assess the precision of RMSEA estimates; AMOS (the statistical program that is used to run the SEMs) reports a 90% interval around the RMSEA. Research Objectives 1. Probing into the voluntourism situation in Thailand. 2. Exploring the effects of activity involvement, experiential marketing, experiential value, and place attachment to the volunteer tourists’ revisit intention. Conceptual Framework METHODOLOGY Locale of the study The locale of this study will focus on the volunteer tourists (the tourists who did the voluntary works.) who have ever been to service the destination where located in the north part of Thailand. Population and Sampling Procedures Population The population of this study focused on the volunteer tourists in the north of Thailand who went to the rural and remote areas and did the work to help the local people to develop their living environment, or give assistance to save remains and historical buildings during their vocation in the northern part of Thailand. Sample In this study used the stratified sampling and systematic sampling, and adopt the confidence interval approach from Ott (1993) (N: the sample size; z: standard error associates with chosen level of confidence; P: estimated variability in the population; e: acceptable error). Follow the confidence interval approach. This study sets the sample under the 95% confidence level, and adopt the reference about 50% is widely used in social science research, and acceptable error is 5%. In consequence, the study has to get the samples 150. Stratified random sampling In statistics, stratified sampling is a method of sampling from a population. When sub-populations vary considerably, it is advantageous to sample each subpopulation (stratum) independently. Stratification is the process of grouping members of the population into relatively homogeneous subgroups before sampling. The strata should be mutually exclusive: every element in the population must be assigned to only one stratum. The strata should also be collectively exhaustive: no population element can be excluded. Then random sampling is applied within each stratum. This often improves the representativeness of the sample by reducing sampling error. It can produce a weighted mean that has less variability than the arithmetic mean of a simple random sample of the population. In this study was a group member of the population into 3 subgroups. According to the sampling framework, the classification method was based on the volunteer tourists take a part the Voluntourism programs or activities from government departments, non-profit organization or general organization. Then adopt the random sampling to get the samples to do the questionnaire Survey. IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Voluntourism combines the nonprofit sector and tourism sector. The promary purpose is to serve, to learn about the host community and its people (Voluntourism organization, 2008 & Global Volunteers organization 2010). According to Callanan & Thomas (2005) pointed that volunteer tourist as “shallow”, “intermediate” or “deep” based on the duration of the volunteer trip, the skills or qualifications required of participants, the degree of involvement (positive or active) of volunteer tourists, their level of contribution to local communities, and the focus of the experience (altruistic or self interested). In Thailand, voluntourism is a relatively new term that has become used more frequently since the 2004 Tsunami that destroyed communities and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods and triggered an unprecedented out pouring of compassion to Southeast Asia. After the Tsinami, there were many contacts from overseas university student groups around the world wishing to offer assistance to survivors (http://roujakthai.blogspot.com/2009). Voluntourism takes the travelling, learning and interacting concept one step further by aiming to improve the lives of people in local communities all over the country over periods of time ranging from a couple of days to several months. As a result, Thai tour operators have developed several innovative programs that offer visitors not only quality holiday time in the kingdom but also the opportunity to engage in hands-on teaching and other volunteers activities. Agriculture is still today on of Thailand’s primary industries and by living and assisting on rural farm, volunteer tourists can get an intimate understanding of an agrarian way of life that is far removed from the weekly supermarket visit. At the same time, visitors can learn about the exquisite selections of juicy fruits, nutritious vegetables and hearty crops that thrive in Thailand’s fertile soil. Alternatively, get creative with handicraft techniques, or learn about the curative affects of herbal medicines. Sleeping in wooden stilled huts with smiling villagers and hill tribe dwellers allows visitors to take in a deeper sense of nature though their eyes while aiding these warm-hearted folk in maintaining their traditional ways of life. SUMMARY RESULTS In summary, the results show that all of five factors have the positive effect to each others. It means 1) the activity involvement has positive effect to experiential value experiential marketing and place attachment 2 ) the experiential marketing has positive effect to experiential value and place attachment 3) the experiential value has positive effect to revisit intention 4) the experiential marketing has positive effect revisit intention and 5) the place attachment has positive effect to revisit intention. REFERENCES. Altman, I., & Low, S. M. (Eds.).1992. Place Attachment. New York: Plennum Press. Ambassadors for Children.2008. Available from: http://www.ambassadorsforchildren.org American Hiking Society.2008. Available from: http://www.americanhiking.org/index.html Asparoukov, T & Muthin. B.2009. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. Structural Equation Modeling. 16. Pp. 397-438. Babin, Barry J., William R. Darden, and Mitch Griffin 1994. Work and/or fun: Measuringhedonic and utilitarian shopping value. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(March), Pp.644-656. 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The strategies of experiential marketing applied in the national science and technology museum-take the "Plastics and Rubber" gallery as an example, Technology Museum Review, 7(3), Pp.31-51 Results and Discussion Voluntourism Situation in Thailand Thailand’s tourist appeal is no secret, but there’s an import ant element missing from the average visitor’s itinerary – meaningful human contact. Transform your next Far-East adventure into a meaningful, cross-cultural experience by volunteering with Friends for Asia, in Thailand. The ancient capitals, forested mountains and dynamic festivals of Northern Thailand are captivating. Chiang Mai is our base for volunteering in Northern Thailand. Tourists venture for the chance to explore Lanna temples, enroll in cooking or massage courses and trekking to the mountains to visit remote hill tribe villages. But our volunteers see a side of Thailand that the average visit o r misses alt o get her. Better yet , our volunteers enjoy the satisfaction of changing lives in small but significant ways via their Thailand volunteer project .