THE STUDY OF POTENTIAL OF ECO-TOURIST ATTRACTION: A CASE STUDY OF THAN TO WATERFALL, THAN TO DISTRICT, YALA PROVINCE

Abstract

The objectives of this study were 1) to study the opinion of tourists towards the potential of eco-tourist attraction of Than To Waterfall, Than To district, Yala Province 2) to investigate the relationship between the potential of ecotourism destination and the return trip to Than To Waterfall, and 3) to study the potentials and the guideline of ecotourism destination development of Than To Waterfall. This study applied the concept of mixed method and using 5-point Likert scale questionnaire to collect data with convenience sampling technique, relevant to the opinion of tourists towards the potential of ecotourism destination of Than To Waterfall from 400 tourists as sample group in this study. In addition, in-depth interview was also used to gather qualitative data from the community leader and government officers who are responsible for Than To ecotourism destination in order to study the potentials and to determine the guideline of ecotourism development. Statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that the tourists had opinions regarding the potential of Than To ecotourism destination in the aspect of convenience for accessing tourist attraction at high level, facility ecotourism destination at moderate level, value and importance of ecotourism destination at moderate level, and local involvement at moderate level. Furthermore, this study also found that convenience for accessing tourist destination, value and importance of tourism destination, and local involvement had positive effects on return trip at 0.05 statistically significance. For the development of ecotourism destination, there were 3 issues concerned as following; natural potential of itself waterfall, proactive public relations, and resource readiness of organization so as to maintain and improve to be a qualified and sustainable ecotourism destination