C Generation people’s use of the “Tiow Tua Thai Bai Hai Tour” Facebook group to make tourism decisions
Keywords:
Awareness of tourism-related information, C Generation, Facebook media use behavior, Tourism decision makingAbstract
The objectives of this research were to study 1) the Connectedness Generation, or “C Generation” people’s media use behavior in utilizing the “Tiow Tua Thai Bai Hai Tour” (Tour All Around Thailand, Go Everywhere) Facebook group to access information about tourism; 2) their use of that Facebook group to make tourism decisions; and 3) the correlations between C generation people’s Facebook media use behavior and awareness of tourism information gained from the “Tiow Tua Thai Bai Hai Tour” Facebook group with their tourism-related decision-making. This was quantitative research done using the survey method. The sample population was 400 members of the “Tiow Tua Thai Bai Hai Tour” Facebook group, chosen through multi-level sampling. The research instrument was an online questionnaire. Data were statistically analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s correlated co-efficient.
The results showed that 1) for their Facebook media use behavior, most of the samples accessed tourism information using their smart phones. They reported using online social media and search engines to look up tourism information, and used personal data sources via digital media the most. They accessed tourism-related content by using search terms based on the expenses, travel routes, and accommodations, in that order. 2) As for tourism decision-making based on use of Facebook media, the samples had a high level of awareness of tourism information to use in their decision-making process. 3) Analysis of the correlations between the samples’ Facebook media use behavior, their awareness of tourism information, and their tourism-related decision-making revealed that (1) the variables of channel used for searching for tourism information and access to tourism-related content were correlated to tourism-related decision-making to a statistically significant degree at 0.05; (2) the variable of source of tourism-related information was not correlated to tourism-related decision-making; (3) the variable of tourism-related content was correlated to tourism-related decision-making to a statistically significant degree at 0.01; and (4) the variable of awareness of tourism-related information was correlated to tourism-related decision-making to a statistically significant degree at 0.01.
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