The Tourist’s Perceptions of Crowding and Factors Influencing Perceived Crowding at Beach Recreation Areas, Than Bok Khorani National Park, Krabi Province

Abstract

Tourist’s Perceptions of Crowding is one of significant factors that affect the quality of the visitor experience. Thus, the objectives of this research are to 1) study the perception of crowding and 2) examine the factors affecting the perception of crowding of tourists visiting Hong Island, Koh Pakbia and Koh LaoLaDing, the major attractions of Than Bok Khorani National Park, Krabi Province. Data were collected from 600 questionnaires, both Thai and Foreign tourist. The study found that, overall, the majority of the tourists perceived the crowding at a moderate level (39.83 percent). Additionally, the results presented that the tourists visiting Koh LaoLaDing represented the highest level of crowding perception, followed by Hong Island and Koh Pakbia, represented. For factors affecting of crowding perception, the set of 16 variables that are expected to affecting the perception of crowding were tested. The results of ordinal regression analysis found that there are only six factors affecting crowding perception with statistically significant, including ethnicity, travel planning, expected recreation experience, the number of tourists seen, and expectation of the number of tourists (Pseudo R2 = 0.481). This research proposed that there should be management strategies to distribute tourists during high period of use. Moreover, limit the number of tourists visiting the destination or distributing tourists to nearby tourist sites to reduce density of use in the major destination should be apply, especially, Koh LaoLaDing which has the highest level of crowding perception of tourists