AN INVESTIGATION OF VIETNAMESE TOURISTS’
MOTIVATIONS TO VISIT THAILAND
Nguyen Viet Hoang1
Email: viethoangnguyen.hdu@gmail.com
Abstract
A number of Vietnamese outbound tourists have been significantly increasing
recently inspire of the world economic recession. Seeing that Thailand is regarded as
one of the ideal destination for Vietnamese tourists, a research, therefore, was
conducted in Thailand to identify the push and pull motivation factors which influence
Vietnamese tourists’ decision on traveling to Thailand. Both semi-structured questions
interview and questionnaire survey were used to select 341 respondents who were
traveling in Thailand. Independent t-test was conducted to figure out the significant
differences between travel arrangement and motivation factors of Vietnamese tourists.
Findings are illuminated and recommendations are selected which may help to
understand and better improve the Thailand Tourism Marketing Strategy towards this
potential tourism market. In the end the limitations of this study are also discussed for
future research.
Key words: Vietnamese outbound tourists, Thailand, push and pull factors
Introduction
Thailand has been an ideal destination for foreign tourists, and Vietnamese are
also at the top ranking group of Thailand’s inbound tourists which has kept increasing
throughout the years. The number of Vietnamese tourists to Thailand has jumped 10
times in the past 12 years, and it is forecasted to go up to 15% year-on-year [1]. By the
end of August 2012, Vietnam is the 12th largest tourism market for Thailand [2].
Chutathip Chareonlarp, director of TAT in Ho Chi Minh City stated that besides the
booming of the quantity, Vietnamese tourists are fairly big spenders in Thailand. In
2011, it was estimated that 430,000 Vietnamese tourists spending 13.68 billion THB
(US$446 million) in Thailand, and 6.04 days was the average length of stay, and 4,035
THB is average daily expenditure of Vietnamese tourist. Around 60 percent is the rate
of Vietnamese repeat visitors was reported [1].
Nowadays, more and more conditions are opened for Vietnamese tourists
travel abroad. One important thing is that the living standard of Vietnamese has been
improving considerably. GDP per capital increased from 1,392.4 US$ in 2011 to
1,555.2 US$ in 2012, and it is estimated to go up to 1,705.8 US$ in 2013[3]. In
addition, beside Vietnam Airlines, Air Asia, Qatar Airlines, Thai Airways, now there
are many new airlines have launched direct route from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to
Bangkok. The participation of Turkish, Lufthansa, and the newest one is VietJet Air
with cheaper price…is good opportunity for Vietnamese tourists to travel to Thailand.
Especially, the establishment of the East-west economic Corridor in 2006 and AEC
organization by the end of 2015 is a big advantage for Asian countries to develop the
1
Master student in International Hospitality Management, Mahidol University
International College, Thailand
tourism industry. It opens a chance for related countries to continue executing bilateral
and multilateral commitments, assumptions through workshop, conference, forum, and
meeting [4].
However, there is a fact that there is rare research about Vietnamese tourist
market, especially motivations of Vietnamese outbound tourists. Information about
this tourist market is limited, just focused on domestic tourists or characteristics of
inbound tourist arrival to Vietnam; meanwhile outbound tourism has a crucial position
in the development and renovation of Vietnam tourism industry. Furthermore,
although “Zero Dollar Commission Tour” policy of Thailand tour operators is a
attractive policy which received more and more tourists from Vietnam to visit
Thailand. However it has received so many complaints shortly. All the complaint
reflect that Vietnamese tourists to Thailand now are not satisfied with low price, low
quality tours [5]. These problems are mentioned above may cause negative effects to
image of Thailand tourism and other stakeholders; it even may decrease number of
tourists arrival to Thailand.
Thus, the research aims to investigate factors which influence Vietnamese
outbound tourists in making decision to visit Thailand. The final goals will help
Thailand tour companies to understand more clearly about characteristics of this
potential tourist market to launch appropriate products or marketing strategies to
attract more Vietnamese tourists without “zero dollar commission” policy of Thailand.
In addition, the study is helpful reference for advance researches about characteristics
of Vietnamese outbound tourist market.
Methodology
In order to avoid and restrict the bias, and gain more valid results,
incorporating qualitative and quantitative techniques is the much more creditable
method for this study. The target population of this survey was Vietnamese travelers
who chose Thailand as their vacation destination. They participated in package tour to
Thailand or individual tourists who came to visit Thailand with the different traveling
purposes.
The research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board
(IRB) for ethical research. Sample size is the number of elements included in the
study. In the qualitative research method, as mentioned above, around 20 respondents
were chosen. In the quantitative method, this research takes Taro Yamane formula as
instrument to calculate the appropriate sample size.
𝑵
Formula: 𝒏 = 𝟏+𝑵×𝒆𝟐 (1)
Where,
𝑛
=
Sample size
N
=
Population
𝑒
=
Significant Level
According to TAT, in 2012, there were 618,670 Vietnamese tourists went to
visit Thailand. Apply to the above formulation we have:
618,670
𝑛 = 1+618,670×0.052
= 399.7415
Thus, there are approximate 400 respondents were chosen to investigate their
motivations to travel to Thailand.
After one and a half month from August 28th to October 14th, 2013, total 341
usable responses were obtained. Among of them, there are 20 persons were chosen to
conduct face to face and open ended interview, including different generations and
traveling purposes. A self-administered survey and interview was utilized to collect
data when researcher joined the tours with Vietnamese tourists around Bangkok and to
Pattaya. In addition, the data collection process also was taken palace in some hotels in
Bangkok and trips from center Bangkok to the Suvanabhumi International airport
where the investigator received allowance of many tour operators and tour guides both
in Thailand and Vietnam.
During face to face interview, the content was taken notes as the permission of
the respondents. On the next step, the researcher checked all collected information to
find out any vague information. Another important task is seeking for the information
which is not familiar with variables that relate to the push and pull motivation factors
and interviewed participants. After that, cross-check was implemented to find out the
valid findings.
The Statistical program for the Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to
generate a profile of Vietnamese outbound tourists to Thailand. Following, descriptive
statistical analysis, reliability analysis, and independent t-test were computed to
achieve the objectives of this research.
Results
Sample profile
Socio-demographic characteristics
Table 1. Socio-demographic Characteristics of the respondents
Socio-demographic
Gender of responders
Age of responder
Education
qualification
Occupation
Monthly income2
Male
Female
Under 18
18-23
24-39
40-59
60 and above
High school
Bachelor
Master
Doctor and above
Factory Worker/Farmer
Office Staff
Technician
Professional (Teacher, Doctor, Lawyer...)
Manager/Director
Student
Service/Sales
Others
Below 3 million VND
3-9 million VND
Over 9 million
Frequency
(n=341)
167
174
3
34
175
105
24
69
218
46
8
27
79
29
35
16
19
96
40
46
193
102
%
(100%)
49
51
0.9
10.0
51.3
30.8
7.0
20.2
63.9
13.5
2.3
7.9
23.2
8.5
10.3
4.7
5.6
28.2
11.7
13.5
56.6
29.9
The descriptive analysis crosstab was used to find out that among 341
respondents there were 49% male and 51% female. More than a half of them were at
2
1 USD = 21,036 VND (According to the official letter No. 2626/TB-KBNN dated December 2nd, 2013
of the Vietnam Ministry of Finance)
the age from 24 to 39 (51.3%), one-third were from 40 to 59, and the rest were above
60, under 18, and from 18-23 years old. In term of education qualification, bachelor
degree is the qualification that occupied the highest proportion with 63.9%, and lowest
is doctor or equivalent degree with 2.3%. Besides, their monthly income fluctuates
mainly from 3 to 9 million VND (56.6%). Most of them have been working as
service/sales and office staffs/administration which respectively accounted for 28.1%
and 23.2%.
Travel patterns of Vietnamese outbound tourists
The majority (72.1%) of respondents chose to buy package tour. Three-fourth of them
traveled to Thailand the first time, the others revisited Thailand from 2 to 11 times.
The mean of length stay of Vietnamese outbound tourists was 6.07 days with the
standard deviation was 3.604 days. There were 23 people stayed in Thailand from 10
to 30 days, occupied 6.7%.
Holiday travel was often organized with colleagues (38.7%), family members or
relatives (31.4%), friends (23.5%), and just 6.5% chose to travel alone. The fund of
the trip to Thailand came from many different sources. For example, 44.4% of them
had to pay by themselves, 44.1% of them were sponsored by their organization, 6.6%
received support from their relatives, and the rest 4.8% obtained award/bonus from
their organizations.
Table 2. Travel patterns of the respondents
Travel patterns
Go with
Source of fund
Time to visit
Length of stay
Alone
Friends
Family, relatives
Colleagues
Self
Sponsored by organization
Sponsored by relatives
Award/bonus
1
2-11
2-5
6-9
10-30
Frequency
(n=341)
22
80
107
132
154
147
24
16
256
85
225
93
23
%
6.5
23.5
31.4
38.7
45.2
43.1
7.0
4.7
75.1
24.9
66.0
27.3
6.7
Travel arrangements and Motivation (push and pull factors)
Travel arrangements and push factors
The relevance between travel arrangements and motivation factors of
Vietnamese tourists were examined by using independent sample t-test analysis (see in
table 3).
The result expressed that top five most significant factors that have influential
impact on motivation of tour group travelers include “Discovering a new destination” (
x = 3.80), “Discovering Thailand history and culture” ( x = 3.42), “Enjoying
interesting shows and entertainment” ( x = 3.33), “Visiting where many people
appreciated and recommended” ( x = 3.29), and “Satisfying abroad travel demand” ( x
= 3.01). The lowest influential level belongs to two factors namely “Visiting friends,
relatives” ( x = 1.47) and “revisiting where I lived/visited before” ( x = 1.37).
On the other hand, the five most important reasons for independent tourists are
“Discovering new destination” ( x =3.64), “Discovering Thailand history and culture” (
x = 3.09), “Having rest and relax” ( x = 3.01), “Visiting where many people
appreciated and recommended” ( x = 2.98), “Satisfying shopping demand” ( x = 2.98),
and “Having more time with family members or relatives” ( x =2.95). The individual
travelers were not affected by factor “revisiting where I visited before” ( x =1.56).
Thus, the results reveals that there are some similar and difference motivations
between two groups of travelers. In term of similarity, ‘Discovering a new
destination”, “Discovering Thailand historical and culture”, and “Visiting where many
people appreciated and recommended” are the same reasons for them to visit Thailand.
Nevertheless, meanwhile tour group tourists would like to travel to Thailand to “enjoy
interesting shows and entertainments” and “satisfy abroad travel demand”,
independent tourists had a different motivations because their motivations are “to have
a rest and relax”, “to satisfy shopping demand” and “to have more time with their
family members or relatives”.
Table 3. Mean score of various push factors among respondents from different travel arrangements
Tour group
Independent tourists
tourists
Push factors
Mean
Rank
Rank
Mean
2.98
6
Having rest, relax
3
3.01
2.84
7
Releasing stress and daily routine
8
2.81
3.80
1
Discovering new destination
1
3.64
2.82
8
Visiting my dream destination
9
2.63
3.42
2
Discovering Thailand history and culture
2
3.09
2.43
10
Communicating with Thai people
9
2.63
3.33
3
Enjoying interesting shows and entertainment
7
2.85
2.98
6
Learning more Thai Buddhism
10
2.51
2.76
9
Having more time with family member and
5
2.95
friends
3.29
4
Visiting where many people appreciated and
4
2.98
recommended
2.76
9
Satisfying shopping demand
4
2.98
1.37
13
Revisiting where I visited/lived before
13
1.56
1.47
12
Visiting friends, relatives
12
1.99
3.01
5
Satisfying abroad travel demand
6
2.88
1.87
11
Well-being
11
2.07
The interview result also revealed that meanwhile the dominant push motivations of
independent tourists are “having a rest and relax”, “MICE”, “visiting friends,
relatives”, and “having more time with family members or relatives”; tour group
tourists would like to visit Thailand to “enjoying interesting shows and
entertainment”, “MICE”, and “knowledge seeking”.
Travel arrangement and pull factors
The table 4 demonstrates the significant difference between pull factors and
travel arrangements. The most outstanding feature to note is that “affordable
destination” and “easy to adapt due to the similar culture” are the main full factor that
attracts both tour group and individual tourists.
There are four main pull factors that affected motivations of tour group
tourists, namely “Convenient package tour” ( x =3.28), “Unique traditional
architecture” ( x = 3.26), and “Service quality of destination management” ( x =3.25).
On the contrary, independent tourists were attracted by “Unique traditional
architecture” ( x =3.27), “Near Vietnam” ( x = 3.22), “Shopping Paradise” ( x = 3.19),
and “Impressive historical sites” (3.14).
The interview result also showed the different perspectives between two
groups of Vietnamese traveler. Most of tour group tourists had strong influence on
“Time availability”, “New strange service”, “Service quality of tour guide”, “Easy and
convenient immigration policy”, and “Unique Architecture”. On the other hand,
independent tourists had different motivations. They were attracted by Thailand – an
“affordable destination”, “Thai food”, “advantage in proximity”, and the “advantages
of independent tour”.
Table 4. Mean score of various pull factors among respondents from different travel
Tour group
Independent tourists
Push factors
tourists
Mean
Rank
Rank
Mean
2.26
18
Nice beaches
15
2.42
3.12
7
Impressive Historical sites
6
3.14
3.04
9
Unique traditional culture
11
2.86
3.26
3
Unique traditional architecture
2
3.27
2.85
15
Service quality of travel agent
17
2.27
2.86
14
Service quality of tour guide
20
2.00
3.25
4
Service quality of destination management
12
2.76
2.98
12
Friendly local people
7
3.11
3.08
8
Convenient facilities
8
3.09
3.40
1
Affordable destination
1
3.37
13
Convenient hotel location and
9
2.97
3.04
transportation
2.98
12
Suitable tour arrangement
16
2.35
3.00
11
Shopping Paradise
4
3.19
3.22
5
Easy to adapt due to similar culture
5
3.16
2.21
19
Interesting advertisement
18
2.22
2.59
17
Various Thailand tourism information
14
2.61
2.67
16
Unique cuisine
10
3.03
3.28
2
Convenient package tour
19
2.20
3.04
9
High-tech country
13
2.71
3.01
10
Safety destination
9
3.04
3.19
6
Near Vietnam
3
3.22
In addition, according to qualitative research, there are three new factors that
pushed Vietnamese tourists come to visit Thailand. Firstly, they want to combine both
traveling and finding a chance to enlarge their business. Secondly, they travel abroad,
especially to Thailand to satisfy their curiosity of Thailand. Lastly, the results
identified that Mice is one of the important parts of the trip of Vietnamese tourists to
Thailand nowadays. Besides, three pull factors were also pointed out, namely: “Time
availability”, “Award for hard work”, “Easy and convenient immigration policy”,
“Language skill advantage”, and “Media affect”.
Discussion and Marketing Implications
Discussion
The findings of the research help us to answer the important question of why
Vietnamese tourists choose Thailand as their vacation destination.
It can be seen clearly that the same important push factors that drive both tour
group and independent tourists to visit Thailand are “discover a new destination”,
“discover Thai history and culture”, “MICE”, and “discover where many people
appreciated and recommended”. If the tour group tourists showed that they traveled to
Thailand to “enjoy interesting shows and entertainment” and “satisfy abroad travel
demand”, the independent tourists expressed their desires to “have a rest or relax”,
“have more time with family members or relatives”, and “shopping”.
In comparison with push motivations of other foreign tourists to Thailand, such
as Chinese tourists [6], senior Japanese tourists [7], senior European tourists [8],
Indian tourists [9], Taiwanese tourists [10], the research shows that “Well-being”,
“Having fun”, “Escape”, and “Prestige” are not important for Vietnamese outbound
tourists. “Discovering a new destination”, “Discovering Thai history and culture”, and
“Discovering where many people appreciated and recommended” are the most
important factors that have highest influential level on their decision making to travel
to Thailand. As figured out by Uysal, M. and Hagan, L.R. (1993), most of tourists
extremely like to travel abroad in order to look for a new different things and
experience new services [11]. The results also supports for the research of Sangpikul
(2008) and Siri et al (2012) when they respectively indicated that Japanese tourists
visited to Thailand to discover the historical and cultural destinations; and Indian
tourists wanted to travel to Thailand because of the interesting shows and
entertainment.
On the other hand, the major motivational pull factors that attract Vietnamese
tourists to Thailand are “Near Vietnam”, “Affordable destination”, “Unique traditional
architecture”, and “New strangle different services”. They did not pay attention to the
natural resources of Thailand, such as beach or climate like Swedish, Indian, senior
Japanese, or Chinese tourists. Similar to Indian, Chinese and Australian tourists,
proximity is an advantage that has high influential level in their decision to visit
Thailand. Siri et al (2012) and Ran, L. (2013) sated that the less geographical distance
from tourists’ home country, the more likely they would visit [12]. Besides, it is not
too surprising to see that unlike tourists who bought package tours, individual visitors
had more time to visit, had more length of stay to live and communicate with local
people, factor “Easy to adapt due to the similar culture” and “Shopping paradise”,
therefore, play important role in their plan to travel to Thailand.
Unlike the independent tourists, tour group tourists were not affected by the
uniqueness of Thailand foods, the convenience of accommodation or accessibility. In
contrast, independent tourists have higher influential level of those factors.
Apparently, in the open ended interview, most of tourists who bought a package tour
stated that they were not satisfied with food during the tour because they forced to
have monotonous buffet every day with the same types of food. The tour itinerary is
too narrow, thus, there was no choice for them. It means that it is rear opportunity for
them to taste delicious Thai traditional cuisine. Furthermore, They also claimed that
“hotel is a place for them just to stay a short night” (Interview No.10), or “…We did
not have any time to experience new feeling in modern mean of transportation like sky
train” (Interview No.8), so accommodation and accessibility factors are not too
important for them.
Implications
First of all, it’s the time for Thailand tourism to diversify their tourism
products. Tabata (n.d) emphasized that in order to attract more tourists, it is very
important for relative businesses to “increase the holding power an area by provoking
the interest of visitors and providing memorable visitor experiences” [13], (p.154).
Based on the push and pull factors within this research, especially the factor
“discovering new destination”, tourism marketers should concentrate on more package
tour products with many different destinations or multi-products instead of some basic
tours, such as “Bangkok – Pattaya” or “Udonthani – Bangkok” as what have been
selling for Vietnamese tourists so far.
Tour operators should focus on the desires of “having rest and relax”,
“shopping” and “having more time with family/relatives” of the independent travelers
to have appropriate tourism products to better satisfy the needs of them because they
claimed that if they joined the package tour, they would never have a chance to visit
others different landmarks or taste such very delicious along the street. Besides, they
travel to relax and enhance relationships with their friends or relatives (Interview
No.3).
Based on the two new factors named “Time availability”, “award for hard
work”, and sources of fund for travelling come from “sponsored by organization” or
“award/bonus”, one suggestion for tour operators is that most of tour group tourists are
supported by their organization to have a trip to Thailand. They are both senior tourists
and office staffs. They are the potential tourism market for Thailand.
It’s time for TAT to open one more representative office in the north of
Vietnam beside another one in Ho Chi Minh city to launch more attractive campaigns
to introduce better image of Thailand tourism to this potential market. It seems that
Thailand tourism still is a hidden charm because more and more independent travelers
want to do it by themselves to discover more masterpiece landscapes or resources of
Thailand.
Thailand and Vietnam just had collaboration in film industry with a movie
named “Tinh xa” which attracted a lot of Vietnamese audiences with good impression
of Thailand people and culture. Many interviewees had strong influence from that
film. In order to have more tourists not only from Vietnam but also all over the world,
Thailand government, therefore should have better policy to encourage both domestic
and Vietnamese film companies to come and shoot interesting films, movies in
Thailand. Films will be one of the best effective instruments to introduce image of
Thailand to friends worldwide.
Conclusions and Dimensions for future researches
Conclusions
In a nutshell, Vietnamese tourists are attracted by “new strange different
service”, “service quality”, “affordable destination”, “the advantage in proximity”,
“the unique traditional architecture” and “shopping paradise”. The main reasons for
them to travel abroad, especially to Thailand are “to discover new destinations”, “to
discover Thailand culture and history” (or “knowledge seeking”), “to participate in
MICE”, “to enjoy interesting shows and entertainment”, “to have a rest and relax”, and
“to have more time with family members or relatives”.
Moreover, the research shows that people from the same country but have
different travel arrangements will have different motivations. Therefore, the findings
are very useful for tour operators to have more suitable tour programs or itineraries
with each type of travel arrangement or more congruous campaigns to attract more
each type of tourists.
Dimensions for future researches
The research has some big drawbacks. First of all, the data collection process
was conducted within one and a half month but this it is not considered the high
season of Vietnamese tourists to Thailand. Therefore, it was quite difficult for
investigator to find out the respondent to interview and conduct the survey. The
second one is that Vietnam has a long shape that lengthens from the north to the south;
in addition, each region of Vietnam has different characteristics and lifestyle. In this
small research, investigator still hasn’t pointed out the differences in motivations,
travel patterns and behavior of each residency components. Another important
limitation is that most of respondents chose to travel by air planes, meanwhile there
are one third of Vietnamese tourists travel to Thailand by land routes. Thus, the
findings of the research may not cover the whole population.
In order to reduce these limitations, the data collection process should be
carried put throughout the year to cover both low and high season of Vietnamese
tourists travel to Thailand. The research also should be conducted in some border areas
like Noongkhai, Chiang Mai…where there are many Vietnamese tourists travel to by
land routes.
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